Developmental regulation and tissue-specific differences of heat shock gene expression in transgenic tobacco and Arabidopsis plants.

The heat shock (hs) response during plant growth and development was analyzed in tobacco and Arabidopsis using chimaeric beta-glucuronidase reporter genes (hs-Gus) driven by a soybean hs promoter. Fluorimetric measurements and histochemical staining revealed high Gus activities in leaves, roots, and flowers exclusively after heat stress. The highest levels of heat-inducible expression were found in the vascular tissues. Without heat stress, a developmental induction of hs-Gus was indicated by the accumulation of high levels of Gus in transgenic tobacco seeds. There was no developmental induction of hs-Gus in Arabidopsis seeds. In situ hybridization to the RNA of the small heat shock protein gene Athsp17.6 in tissue sections revealed an expression in heat-shocked leaves but no expression in control leaves of Arabidopsis. However, a high level of constitutive expression of hs genes was detected in meristematic and provascular tissues of the Arabidopsis embryo. The developmental and tissue-specific regulation of the hs response is discussed.