Regulation of Arabidopsis thaliana L. (Heyn) cor78 in response to low temperature.

Changes in gene expression occur during cold acclimation in a variety of plants including Arabidopsis thaliana L. (Heyn). Here we examine the cold-regulated expression of A. thaliana cor78. The results of gene-fusion experiments confirm the finding of Yamaguchi-Shinozaki and Shinozaki ([1993] Mol Gen Genet 236: 331-340) that the 5' region of cor78 has cis-acting regulatory elements that can impart cold-regulated gene expression. Further, histochemical staining experiments indicated that this cold-regulatory element(s) was active at low temperature throughout much of the plant including leaves, stems, roots, flower petals, filaments, and sepals. Time-course experiments indicated that the activity of the cor78 promoter in cold-acclimated plants was down-regulated quickly in response to noninducing temperatures and that the half-life of the cor78 transcripts was only about 40 min at normal growth temperature. Fusion of the entire transcribed region of cor78 to the cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter resulted in a chimeric gene that was constitutively expressed and displayed little if any posttranscriptional regulation in response to low temperature.