Isolation of two novel promoters from ramie (Boehmeria nivea L. Gaudich) and its functional characterization in Arabidopsis thaliana

The development of tissue-specific or inducible promoters is important for plant genetic engineering. In this study, we isolated two novel promoters (named BnGDS pro and BnSTM pro ) from ramie and analyzed their functions in Arabidopsis . The results show that BnGDS pro and its 5′-truncated fragments drive GUS dominantly expressed in shoot meristem while BnSTM pro and its 5′-truncated fragments have apical meristem specificity in Arabidopsis seedlings and nodule specificity in the flowers and siliques. The − 1233 to − 914 region and − 425 to 0 region of BnSTM pro are responsible for apical root specificity and root-knot specificity, respectively. In particular, CuSO 4 treatment reveals that both BnGDS pro and BnSTM pro are copper-inducible promoters. Our findings suggest that BnGDS pro and BnSTM pro and their truncated fragments have potential applications in plant genetic transformation.