Analysis of promoters in transgenic barley and wheat.

Advances in the genetic transformation of cereals have improved the prospects of using biotechnology for plant improvement, and a toolbox of promoters with defined specificities would be a valuable resource in controlling the expression of transgenes in desired tissues for both plant improvement and molecular farming. A number of promoters have been isolated from the important cereals (wheat, barley, rice and maize), and these promoters have been tested mostly in homologous cereal systems and, to a lesser extent, in heterologous cereal systems. The use of these promoters across the important cereals would add value to the utility of each promoter.

Stress-induced expression in wheat of the Arabidopsis thaliana DREB1A gene delays water stress symptoms under greenhouse conditions.

One of the major environmental factors limiting plant productivity is lack of water. This is especially true for the major cereals maize, rice, and wheat, which demonstrate a range of susceptibility to moisture deficit. Although conventional breeding and marker-assisted selection are being used to develop varieties more tolerant to water stress, these methods are time and resource consuming and germplasm dependent.