Development of novel synthetic promoters for gene expression in transgenic sugarcane

Advances i n synthetic promoter technology offer a framework for designing expression cassettes that could provide precise control of transgene expression. The use of synthetic promoters enables defined transgene regulation, reduces unwanted background expression and allows to overcome homology dependent gene silencing (HDGS) in transgenic plants. In the present study, a synthetic module was designed using characterized cis acting elements and two constructs, one with the synthetic module at the 5’ end of the minimal promoter (SynS1) and the other with the module in both 5’ and 3’ ends (SynS2), were made and sub-cloned in pCAMBIA1305.1 by replacing CaMV 35S promoter so as to drive GUS ( β - glucuronidase ) expression. Transient studies in sugarcane revealed that both the promoters could confer GUS expression. Further, the constructs were stably transformed in sugarcane wherein both the promoters drove constitutive expression.