Interest in and limits to the utilization of reporter genes for the analysis of transcriptional regulation of nitrate reductase.

Reporter gene techniques and mutant analysis were used to identify the molecular basis of the regulation of the expression of nitrate reductase (NR) by nitrate and nitrate-, or ammonium-derived metabolites (N-metabolites), in the true diploïd species Nicotiana plumbaginifolia and in the amphidiploïd species Nicotiana tabacum. The N. plumbaginifolia mutant E23 results from the insertion of a Tnt1-like retrotransposon (Tnp2) in the first exon of the single-copy nia gene, which encodes nitrate reductase. One of the resulting transcripts ends in the 5' LTR (long terminal repeat) sequence of this retrotransposon, and another one in the 3' LTR. Nitrate and N-metabolites modulate the expression of these truncated transcripts, indicating that intron splicing and termination processes are not essential to these regulatory events. A GUS reporter sequence was transcriptionally linked to the promoter of the nia-1 gene of N. tabacum. This fusion was functional in transient expression assays done with protoplasts derived from mesophyll cells of N. tabacum. However none of the regulatory mechanisms known to affect steady-state levels of the nia-1 transcript were operative under these experimental conditions. Transgenic plants carrying either this fusion or translational fusions of GUS linked to the promoter of either the nia-1 or nia-2 gene of N. tabacum were obtained by Agrobacterium-mediated transfer. A low proportion of the transgenic plants (22 out of 105 independent transformants) expressed GUS activity although at a low level. Only 4 plants exhibited a detectable level of GUS mRNA. The concentration of this mRNA increased significantly in an NR-deficient background, indicating regulation by N-metabolites. Only 2 plants, however, showed regulation (induction) by nitrate. Attempts to use aux2 or nptII reporter sequences linked to either the nia-1 or nia-2 promoter as marker genes for the selection of regulatory mutants of the nitrate assimilation pathway were unsuccessful because of our inability to isolate transgenic plants in which these reporter genes were properly regulated by nitrate. The implications of these results are discussed.