Vascular expression of the grp1.8 promoter is controlled by three specific regulatory elements and one unspecific activating sequence

The bean grp1.8 full-length promoter is specifically active in vascular tissue during normal development of tobacco. Deletion of a negative regulatory element resulted in ectopic activity of the promoter in cortical cells of hypocotyls, roots and stems. A 169 bp fragment (−205 to −36) of the grp1.8 promoter conferred vascular-specific expression to CaMV 35S minimal promoters whereas a 141 bp fragment (−205 to −64) strongly activated these minimal promoters both in vascular and cortical cells. These experiments defined a new regulatory element (VSE) that is essential for vascular-specific expression and is located between −64 and −36. The 141 bp grp1.8 promoter sequence had enhancer-like properties as it was active in both orientations. A 24 bp sequence (bp −119 to −96, corresponding to the SE1 regulatory element) enhanced expression from several minimal promoters strongly but unspecifically, whereas a 26 bp sequence (−98 to −73, corresponding to the RSE regulatory element) induced vascular-specific expression. Thus, the grp1.8 promoter is regulated by a combinatorial mechanism that can integrate the action of different, non-additively acting regulatory elements into vascular-specific expression.