Peer review

In the present study, the promoter region of the pearl millet heat shock protein 10 (PgHsp10) gene was cloned and characterized. The PgHsp10 promoter (PgHsp10pro) sequence region has all the cis-motifs required for tissue and abiotic stress inducibility. The complete PgHsp10pro (PgHsp10PC) region and a series of 5′ truncations of PgHsp10 (PgHsp10D1 and PgHsp10D2) and an antisense form of PgHsp10pro (PgHsp10AS) were cloned into a plant expression vector (pMDC164) through gateway cloning. All four constructs were separately transformed into tobacco through Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation, and PCR-confirmed transgenic plants progressed to T1 and T2 generations. The T2 transgenic tobacco plants comprising all PgHsp10pro fragments were used for GUS histochemical and qRT-PCR assays in different tissues under control and abiotic stresses. The PgHsp10PC pro expression was specific to stem and seedlings under control conditions. Under different abiotic stresses, particularly heat stress, PgHsp10PCpro had relatively higher activity than PgHsp10D1pro, PgHsp10D2pro and PgHsp10ASpro. PgHsp10pro from a stress resilient crop like pearl millet responds positively to a range of abiotic stresses, in particular heat, when expressed in heterologous plant systems such as tobacco. Hence, PgHsp10pro appears to be a potential promoter candidate for developing heat and drought stress-tolerant crop plants.

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