A Synthetic Strong and Constitutive Promoter Derived from the pro-SmAMP1 and pro-SmAMP2 Promoters for Effective Transgene Expression in Plants.

Synthetic promoters are vital for genetic engineering-based strategies for crop improvement, but effective methodologies for their creation and systematic testing are lacking. We report here on the comparative analysis of the promoters pro-SmAMP1 and pro-SmAMP2 from () and (). These promoters are more effective than the well-known 35S promoter. Although these promoters share about 94% identity, the pro-SmAMP1 promoter demonstrated stronger transient expression of a reporter gene in infiltration of leaves, while the pro-SmAMP2 promoter was more effective for the selection of transgenic tobacco () cells when driving a selectable marker. Using the cap analysis of gene expression method, we detected no differences in the structure of the transcription start sites for either promoter in transgenic plants. For both promoters, we used fine-scale deletion analysis to identify 160 bp-long sequences that retain the unique properties of each promoter. With the use of chimeric promoters and directed mutagenesis, we demonstrated that the superiority of the pro-SmAMP1 promoter for -mediated infiltration is caused by the proline-inducible ACTCAT -element strictly positioned relative to the TATA box in the core promoter. Surprisingly, the ACTCAT -element not only activated but also suppressed the efficiency of the pro-SmAMP1 promoter under proline stress. The absence of the ACTCAT -element and CAANNNNATC motif (negative regulator) in the pro-SmAMP2 promoter provided a more constitutive gene expression profile and better selection of transgenic cells on selective medium. We created a new synthetic promoter that enjoys high effectiveness both in transient expression and in selection of transgenic cells. Intact promoters with differing properties and high degrees of sequence identity may thus be used as a basis for the creation of new synthetic promoters for precise and coordinated gene expression.