Abstract
Tobacco plants produce enhanced levels of nicotine when they are wounded. Tobacco nic mutants produce extremely low level of nicotine. Putrescine N-methyl transferase (PMT), which catalyzes the methyl transfer from S-adenosyl methionine to putrescine, is one of the genes upregulated by NIC genes that control nicotine biosynthesis. The PMT gene expression increases following jasmonate treatment likely reflecting jasmonate's role in the wounding signal transduction. We used a transient assay strategy in tobacco BY-2 protoplasts to determine the PMT promoter DNA sequence involved in jasmonate response. Four copies of a 24bp PMT promoter sequence (from -172bp to -149bp upstream of the start methionine) fused to CaMV35S minimal promoter was sufficient to mediate methyl jasmonic acid response. The A622 gene has similar expression pattern to PMT but its function has not yet been clarified. We will also report analysis of the A622 promoter.
