Drosophila Adh: a promoter element expands the tissue specificity of an enhancer

Drosophila alcohol dehydrogenase (Adh) genes are expressed in the fat body and in species-specific sets of other tissues during larval and adult development. The Drosophila mulleri Adh-1 gene is expressed in the larval fat body and in three other larval tissues. In this paper, we show that Adh-1 expression in multiple cell types is the result of synergistic interactions between fat body-specific enhancers and a specific Adh-1 promoter element.     

A jasmonate-responsive element within the A. thaliana vsp1 promoter

The vsp1 gene of Arabidopsis thaliana encodes a storage protein that accumulates in vegetative organs. Transgenic plants expressing a vsp1 promoter-gus (beta-glucuronidase) gene fusion were found to contain high GUS activity when challenged with jasmonate, a volatile plant hormone. The induction of vsp1-gus expression by jasmonate could be measured in tobacco mesophyll protoplasts, after transient expression. A number of deletions were operated in the vsp1 promoter in order to locate its jasmonate-responsive element. A 41 bp sequence taken approximately 150 bp upstream of the vsp1 TATA box could confer jasmonate responsiveness upon a short CaMV 35S promoter. Whereas the deletion of a CAAT box-like element within the 41 bp sequence did not affect promoter activity, mutation of a short palindromic motif completely abolished jasmonate responsiveness. This motif shows no homology with the jasmonate-responsive elements of other promoters.