Characterization of upstream sequences of the peroxidase gene, Atprx18 of Arabidopsis thaliana

T-DNA insertional based strategies have been successfully employed to identify genes and promoters in plants. A promoter trap mutant line anth85, carrying T-DNA insertion in the 5'-UTR region of the Atprx18 (At2G24800) gene was found to exhibit GUS gene expression characteristically in anthers and cotyledons of Arabidopsis. The homozygous mutant, anth85 lacking Atprx18 transcript did not exhibit any discernable phenotypic aberration. Transcript analysis in wild type Arabidopsis reveals abundance of the Atprx18 transcript in the inflorescence. 5' RACE analysis of the transcript reveals 'C' nucleotide lying 58 bp upstream from ATG as the Transcription Start Site (TSS). Deletion analysis of the upstream sequences of the Atprx18 gene led to identification of a 507 bp (-507/-1) promoter sequence sufficient to drive the reporter gene expression preferentially in anthers.