Evaluation of synthetic promoters in Physcomitrella patens

Abstract

Securing a molecular toolbox including diverse promoters is essential for genome engineering. However, native promoters have limitations such as the available number or the length of the promoter. In this work, three short synthetic promoters were characterized by using the yellow fluorescent protein Venus. All of the tested promoters were active and showed higher mRNA expression than housekeeping gene PpAct7, and similar protein expression level to the AtUBQ10 promoter. This study shows that few cis-regulatory elements are enough to establish a strong promoter for continuous expression of genes in plants. Along with this, the study enhance the number of available promotors to be used in P. patens. It also demonstrates the potential to construct multiple non-native promoters on demand, which would aid to resolve one bottleneck in multiple pathway expression in P. patens and other plants.

Keywords: Actin promoter; Physcomitrella patens; Synthetic biology; Synthetic promoters; Ubiquitin promoter; Venus.