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Title: TRANSGENE EXPRESSION FROM THE TRIBOLIUM CASTANEUM POLYUBIQUITIN PROMOTER

Author
item LORENZEN, MARCE - KANSAS STATE UNIV
item BROWN, SUSAN - KANSAS STATE UNIV
item DENELL, ROBIN - KANSAS STATE UNIV
item Beeman, Richard

Submitted to: Insect Molecular Biology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/24/2002
Publication Date: 10/1/2002
Citation: LORENZEN, M.D., BROWN, S.J., DENELL, R.E., BEEMAN, R.W. TRANSGENE EXPRESSION FROM THE TRIBOLIUM CASTANEUM POLYUBIQUITIN PROMOTER. INSECT MOLECULAR BIOLOGY 11(5): 399-407. 2002.

Interpretive Summary: Recent advances in our understanding of genes and how they work have opened the door to rapid discovery and analysis of the genetic activities that regulate important biological phenomena. One important component of genetic studies is the ability to turn genes on and off and to increase their activity. This iss accomplished by genetic regions called "promoters". We have been able to clone a specific promoter (turns on the gene that produces a compound called polyubiquitin) from the red flour beetle. We have successfully attached this promoter to a gene that expresses eye-color and the eyes showed very dark pigmentation. This indicates that this promoter was a strong activatorfor this gene and that it can also be used to turn on and regulate other genes. This development will allow us to genetically manipulate insects. We can insert desired traits into beneficial insects or remove undesired traits from pest insects. However, the most significant use of this technology will be in studying the activities of many different genes, which will lead to alternative methods for controlling pest insects.

Technical Abstract: The highly conserved Ubiquitin genes are expressed from strong, constitutively active promoters in many species, making these promoters attractive candidates for use in driving transgene expression. Here we report the conning and characterization of the Tribolium castaneum Polyubiquitin (TcPUb) gene. We placed the TcPUb promoter upstream of the coding region of the T. castaneum eye-color gene Tc vermilion (Tcv) and injected this construct into precellular embryos from a Tcv-deficient strain, vermilion white. Transient expression of Tcv during embryogenesis resulted in complete rescue of the larval vermilion white mutant phenotype, illustrating the potential of the TcPUb promoter for use in transgene constructs.