Rice salT promoter is activated in Papaver somniferum and Nicotiana tabacum transgenic cells in the absence of exogenous ABA.

With the aim of modifying secondary metabolism in Opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) and tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) cells, gene transfer was performed using the sam1 gene from Arabidopsis thaliana under the control of the salT promoter. This promoter is induced by ABA in rice and in tobacco and we have shown that it is also induced in poppy cells (gus gene). Putatively transformed poppy and tobacco cell lines with the sam1 gene were obtained.

Efficiency of physical (light) or chemical (ABA, tetracycline, CuSO4 or 2-CBSU)-stimulus-dependent gus gene expression in tobacco cell suspensions.

In this study, the efficiency of inducible promoters to switch on gene expression in the presence of inducer or to switch it off in its absence was evaluated in tobacco cell suspensions transformed with the gus gene coding sequence. Either plant (pats1A, pSalT, pIn2-2) or microbial (pMre, pTet) inducible promoters were used to drive gus expression. The inducers were light, abscisic acid, 2-CBSU, CuSO4, tetracycline, respectively.