Abstract
To obtain evolutionary insights into gene regulation in dicots, we transferred Arabidopsis genomic DNA fragments to tomato and Lotus japonicus using TAC (Transformation competent artificial chromosome) vector. Our previous results showed that, using DNA array, the expression patterns of the transferred genes in tomato were similar to those in Arabidopsis. In this study, we analyzed the correlation of the normalized expression levels of the transferred genes in tomato and those of the endogenous expression of Arabidopsis genes. The result showed that there was a moderate positive correlation in each organs analyzed. Additionally, quantification of transcripts using real-time RT-PCR demonstrated that some of the transferred genes in tomato showed similar transcript levels with the endogenous Arabidopsis genes. Based on the observations and the results of expression analysis of Lotus japonicus, we discuss the conservation of quantitative gene regulation between dicot plants.
