English

Abstract

Capsella bursa-pastoris is well adapted to different environments, especially low temperature suggesting that it possesses relatively strong tolerance against cold stress. Cold tolerance ability is associated with the accumulation of several cold-induced transcripts. By using a cloning technology, we isolated and sequenced the corresponding COR15 gene from C. bursa-pastoris. The putative promoter of CbCOR15 contains cis-acting elements that have been shown to mediate expression of cold-responsive genes of Arabidopsis thaliana. In this study, we analyzed the CbCOR15a and CbCOR15b promoter sequence shown that there are two or one cis-acting elements in between -305 and -149, or -207 and -128, respectively. Deletion sequence of CbCOR15 promoter region were fused to the GUS reporter gene and introduced into A. thaliana plants. The analysis of independent transgenic lines using histochemical GUS staining method indicated that the CbCOR15a promoter sequences from -305 to -149, CbCOR15b promoter sequences from -207 to -128 is as necessary for gene expression of low temperature regulated. CbCOR15 promoter displayed a slight activity in seedlings, mature rosette leaves, stem leaves, flowers and mature siliques, and after cold treatment, the promoter activity increased greatly in all tissues. CbCOR15a being more sensitive to cold than CbCOR15b. After cold treatment, the AtCOR15 promoter activity was greatly induced in leaves, flowers and siliques, but not roots. In comparison with character of AtCOR15 promoter indicated that CbCOR15 being more sensitive to cold. The character may be related to strong cold acclimation ability of C. bursa-pastoris. © 2016 Friends Science Publishers