Expression of Green Fluorescent Protein from Bacterial and Plastid Promoters in Tobacco Chloroplasts

The expression of the green fluorescent protein reporter gene (gfp) from the bacterial trc and plastid rrn and psbA promoters has been compared in transplastomic tobacco plants produced by microprojectile bombardment. The homoplasmic nature of the regenerated plants was confirmed by Southern blot analysis. Northern blot analysis indicated that plants expressing gfp from the rrn promoter contained 3-fold more gfp RNA than plants containing the psbA promoter and 12-fold more than plants with the trc promoter. Immunoblot analysis and fluorescence spectroscopy indicated that plants expressing gfp from the rrn promoter contained approximately 90-fold more green fluorescent protein (GFP) than plants containing the psbA or trc promoters. This study demonstrates that the bacterial trc promoter is significantly weaker than the plastid rrn promoter for expression of gfp in tobacco chloroplasts.