Abstract

A bidirectional promoter is an intergenic region between a pair of adjacent and oppositely transcribed genes (‘head-to-head’ genes) that concurrently initiates the expression of both genes. In this work, we identified a bidirectional promoter P Bn265 with a 265 bp sequence between transcription initiation codons (ATG) of two genes encoding the homeodomain protein SHH2 and chloroplast GROUP II intron splicing factor CFM3, respectively, in genome of Brassica napus . The histochemical staining and fluorescence microscopy results demonstrated that P Bn265 possess bidirectional promoting activity in the various tissues of the transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana . Notably, the bidirectional expression activities of P Bn265 were significantly increased following red or blue light induction. Furthermore, the gene structure, ‘SHH2-BiP-CFM3’, appears highly conservative among various species in Brassicaceae . Considering its short sequence length, high sequence conservation and light-inducible properties, this promoter from Brassica napus most likely has application potential in bioengineering and agricultural molecular breeding.