Pathogen, salicylic acid and developmental dependent expression of a beta-1,3-glucanase/GUS gene fusion in transgenic tobacco plants.

The 5' flanking region of a gene encoding an acidic beta-1,3-glucanase from Nicotiana tabacum was isolated and characterized. A chimeric gene composed of 1759 bp of the promoter sequence from the PR-2 gene was fused to the beta-glucuronidase (GUS) coding region and used to transform tobacco. Transcriptional activation of the PR-2 promoter was investigated in response to inoculation with tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), after treatment of leaves with salicylic acid (SA), and in specific tissues during the normal development of healthy plants. In TMV-inoculated transgenic plants, GUS activity was induced locally around necrotic viral lesions and systemically in uninoculated leaves. GUS activity was also induced by treatment of leaves with SA. The chimeric gene was expressed in floral organs of healthy plants and in newly germinated seedlings. Analyses of a series of 5' deletions of the glucanase promoter indicated that the cis-acting elements necessary for induction by all these signals are localized in the region between -321 bp and -607 bp upstream of the transcription start site.