Screening of tissue-specific genes and promoters in tomato by comparing genome wide expression profiles of Arabidopsis orthologues.

Abstract

Constitutive overexpression of transgenes occasionally interferes with normal growth and developmental processes in plants. Thus, the development of tissue-specific promoters that drive transgene expression has become agriculturally important. To identify tomato tissue-specific promoters, tissue-specific genes were screened using a series of in silico-based and experimental procedures, including genome-wide orthologue searches of tomato and Arabidopsis databases, isolation of tissue-specific candidates using an Arabidopsis microarray database, and validation of tissue specificity by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis and promoter assay. Using these procedures, we found 311 tissue-specific candidate genes and validated 10 tissue-specific genes by RT-PCR. Among these identified genes, histochemical analysis of five isolated promoter::GUS transgenic tomato and Arabidopsis plants revealed that their promoters have different but distinct tissue-specific activities in anther, fruit, and root, respectively. Therefore, it appears these in silico-based screening approaches in addition to the identification of new tissue-specific genes and promoters will be helpful for the further development of tailored crop development.