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Isolation and characterization of a novel seed-specific promoter from peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.)

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Abstract

Peanut, whose seeds are ideal bioreactors for the production of recombinant proteins and/or nutrient metabolites, is one of the most important crop species worldwide. As important molecular tools, seed-specific promoters (SSPs) can direct the expression of foreign proteins specifically in seeds to avoid constitutive expression that can damage plants. However, few SSPs have been identified from this species. In this study, we isolated a novel SSP (we named it AHSSP2) from peanut. Several cis-acting elements commonly found in SSPs, including 3 copies of RYREPEAT elements, were dispersed throughout the 1970-bp sequence of AHSSP2. The sequence was then substituted in place of the 35S promoter sequence in a pBI121 plasmid, which was subsequently transformed into Arabidopsis. Beta-glucuronidase (GUS) staining showed that AHSSP2 can drive GUS gene expression in the mature seeds of transgenic Arabidopsis, excluding within the testa. The cotyledons and hypocotyls of the germinating seeds of transgenic Arabidopsis seedlings also exhibited GUS activity, even after the seedlings became adult plants. No GUS activity was detected in nontransformed Arabidopsis at any stage. These results strongly suggested that AHSSP2 could drive the expression of foreign genes in a seed-specific manner. This study enriched SSP resources, and the results showed that AHSSP2 could be potentially utilized in peanut and other crop species to improve seed quality, such as modifications to seed oil content.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (31601336), Taishan Scholar Funding (ts201712080), Shandong Elite Variety Project (2017LZN033, 2017LZGC003), Youth Science Foundation of the Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences (2016YQN17), and Shandong Key Research and Development Project (2016GGH4518).

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  1. Cuiling Yuan and Chunjuan Li have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shandong Peanut Research Institute, Qingdao, 266100, China

    Cuiling Yuan, Chunjuan Li, Caixia Yan, **aobo Zhao, Juan Wang, Quanxi Sun & Shihua Shan

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  1. Cuiling Yuan
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Correspondence to Quanxi Sun or Shihua Shan.

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Yuan, C., Li, C., Yan, C. et al. Isolation and characterization of a novel seed-specific promoter from peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.). Mol Biol Rep 46, 3183–3191 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-019-04775-x

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