Functional characterization of a putative nitrate transporter gene promoter from rice

Drought is one of the most significant abiotic stresses that influence plant growth and development. Expression analysis revealed that OsNRT1.3, a putative nitrate transporter gene in rice, was induced by drought. To confirm if the OsNRT1.3 promoter can respond to drought stress, a 2019 bp upstream sequence of OsNRT1.3 was cloned. Three OsNRT1.3 promoter fragments were generated by 5'-deletion, and fused to the beta-glucuronidase (GUS) gene. The chimeric genes were introduced into rice plants. NRT2019::GUS, NRT1196::GUS and NRT719::GUS showed similar expression patterns in seeds, roots, leaves and flowers in all transgenic rice, and GUS activity conferred by different OsNRT1.3 promoter fragments was significantly upregulated by drought stress, indicating that OsNRT1.3 promoter responds to drought stress and the 719 bp upstream sequence of OsNRT1.3 contains the drought response elements.