Transient Gene Expression in Intact and Organized Rice Tissues.

Regulated gene expression of chimeric genes has been studied extensively in electroporated protoplasts. The applicability of these assays is limited, however, because protoplasts are not always physiologically identical to the cells from which they are derived. We have developed a procedure to electroporate DNA into intact and organized leaf structures of rice. Optimization of the new gene delivery system mainly involved eliminating explant-released nucleases, prolonging the DNA/explant incubation time, and expanding the pulse time. Using a [beta]-glucuronidase gene under the control of constitutive promoters, we demonstrated that all cell types within a leaf base were susceptible to electroporation-mediated DNA uptake. Although the technique was initially developed for leaf bases of young etiolated rice seedlings, we proved that it was equally applicable both to other monocotyledons, including wheat, maize, and barley, and to other explants, such as etiolated and green sheath and lamina tissues from rice. Transient gene expression assays with electroporated leaf bases showed that the promoter from a pea light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b-binding protein gene displayed both light- and chloroplast-dependent expression in rice, and that the promoter from the Arabidopsis S-adenosylmethionine synthetase gene was, as in transgenic Arabidopsis and tobacco, preferentially expressed in cells surrounding the vascular bundles.

Different 3' end regions strongly influence the level of gene expression in plant cells.

We have investigated the functional role of a 3' end region on the expression of a reporter gene in plant cells. In stably transformed plants, expression of the reporter gene without a plant gene 3' end is variable and depends on the fortuitous presence of polyadenylation signals in the downstream sequences. When the reporter gene is flanked by pBR322 DNA, 3'-processing and polyadenylation occurs at (a) cryptic site(s) within these vector sequences. Using a transient gene expression system, we present a deletion analysis of the 3' end of the octopine synthase gene showing that the most proximal polyadenylation signal per se is not sufficient to ensure expression but that a downstream (G)T-rich sequence is also required. Optimal expression of the fusion gene requires more than 98 base pairs and at most 142 base pairs downstream from the most distal polyadenylation site. We analyzed the expression of chimeric genes with 3' end sequences originating from different plant genes. In the transient expression assay, all constructs direct similar neomycin phosphotransferase II activities. However, in stably transformed tissue, the gene constructs displayed characteristic expression levels which varied as much as 60-fold. This result suggests a role for 3' end sequences in post-transcriptional processes such as efficiency of 3'-processing and/or mRNA stability.