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Stem specific promoters from sorghum and maize for use in sugarcane

Thesis (MSc (Genetics. Institute of Plant Biotechnology))--Stellenbosch University, 2008.

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Main Author: Govender, Cindy
Other Authors: Huckett, B. I.
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University 2008
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access_status_str Open Access
author Govender, Cindy
author2 Huckett, B. I.
author_browse Govender, Cindy
Huckett, B. I.
author_facet Huckett, B. I.
Govender, Cindy
author_sort Govender, Cindy
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv Stellenbosch University
description Thesis (MSc (Genetics. Institute of Plant Biotechnology))--Stellenbosch University, 2008.
format Thesis
id oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/2374
institution Stellenbosch University (South Africa)
language English
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:41:46.341Z
license_str Other — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository
publishDate 2008
publishDateRange 2008
publishDateSort 2008
publisher Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
publisherStr Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
record_format dspace
source_str SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository
spelling oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/2374 Stem specific promoters from sorghum and maize for use in sugarcane Govender, Cindy Huckett, B. I. Potier, B. A. M. Kossmann, J. M. Stellenbosch University. Faculty of AgriSciences. Dept. of Genetics. Institute for Plant Biotechnology. Sugarcane Promoters Sorghum Maize Dissertations -- Genetics Theses -- Genetics Thesis (MSc (Genetics. Institute of Plant Biotechnology))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. Sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) is an important crop which is cultivated worldwide for the high sucrose content in its stem. Conventional plant breeding has proven to be very successful over the years with regard to the enhancement of yield characteristics but due to the exhaustion of genetic potential in the commercial sugarcane germplasm recent progress has been slow. Genetic engineering seems to be a more attractive approach to enhance sucrose content and pest resistance in the stems but requires appropriate transgenes and suitable promoter. A promoter is essential to drive the transcription of a gene and is therefore critical to the success of transgenic approaches in sugarcane crop improvement. A negligible number of strong stem-specific promoters is available for use in sugarcane and this is one of the major limitations to genetic engineering. The goal of this project was to isolate a stemspecific promoter from maize and sorghum to drive stem-specific transgene expression in sugarcane. The approach used was to source promoters from non-sugarcane grass species with less complex genomes to simplify isolation and possibly counteract silencing. A cDNA sequence (SS) (EST clone, Accession number AW746904) from sugarcane was shown by Northern and Southern analysis to be stem-specific and to have an appropriately low copy number. The SS gene sequence was not expressed in the leaves of maize, sorghum or the sugarcane cultivars and prominent expression was observed only in the stems of the sugarcane hybrids N19 and 88H0019. The SS gene sequence was used to isolate its upstream regions from a Lambda genomic library of maize (Zea mays) and a sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) Bacterial Artificial Chromosome library (BAC). Of the four sorghum and six maize clones obtained in this study, a 4500 bp maize genomic DNA fragment (λ5) was sub-cloned in three fragments into separate pBluescript vectors using the ‘forced’ cloning approach for sequence and database (BLASTN) analysis. This revealed the complete SS gene sequence (975 bp), the promoter and a 300 bp intron region. A stretch of DNA sequence from nucleotides 664-3194 from the maize clone 5 sequence was designated the maize5-pro. Following sequence alignment of the maize and sugarcane promoter regions, significant sequence identity (68%) was observed between nucleotide 1675 and 3194 in maize and nucleotide 1506 and 2947 in sugarcane. The distance between the putative TATA-box and the TSS for this promoter (30 bp) was found to fall within the expected range of 32± 7 bp. The promoter region was analysed for possible cis-acting regulatory elements and revealed several promoter elements that are common in other plant promoters. The comparisons made between the putative transcription factors in maizepro-5 and the sugarcane promoter show that both promoter sequences are very similar as they share ten of the same transcription factors. However, the transcriptional factors WBOX, SRE and SP8BFIBSP8BIB are unique to the maize5-pro and the TAAG motif to the sugarcane promoter. Primers were designed with appropriate restriction sites and the promoter and intron (2850 bp) region was amplified by PCR (Polymerase chain reaction). The amplified fragment was fused inframe to the GUS reporter gene encoding β-glucuronidase to produce a transformation test vector. This will be used in future work to assess the functionality of the promoter through the production of stable transformants in which GUS activity can be measured in a range of tissues. Masters 2008-11-24T06:42:18Z 2010-06-01T08:47:18Z 2008-11-24T06:42:18Z 2010-06-01T08:47:18Z 2008-12 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/2374 en Stellenbosch University application/pdf Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
spellingShingle Sugarcane
Promoters
Sorghum
Maize
Dissertations -- Genetics
Theses -- Genetics
Govender, Cindy
Stem specific promoters from sorghum and maize for use in sugarcane
title Stem specific promoters from sorghum and maize for use in sugarcane
title_full Stem specific promoters from sorghum and maize for use in sugarcane
title_fullStr Stem specific promoters from sorghum and maize for use in sugarcane
title_full_unstemmed Stem specific promoters from sorghum and maize for use in sugarcane
title_short Stem specific promoters from sorghum and maize for use in sugarcane
title_sort stem specific promoters from sorghum and maize for use in sugarcane
topic Sugarcane
Promoters
Sorghum
Maize
Dissertations -- Genetics
Theses -- Genetics
url http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/2374
work_keys_str_mv AT govendercindy stemspecificpromotersfromsorghumandmaizeforuseinsugarcane