Effects of the polyubiquitin gene Ubi.U4 leader intron and first ubiquitin monomer on reporter gene expression in Nicotiana tabacum

We have previously shown by RNA gel blot analyses that the tobacco polyubiquitin-encoding gene Ubi.U4 is expressed in a complex pattern during plant development (Genschik et al., 1994). In order to study its tissue-specific expression, we cloned the fragment containing the -263 bp proximal promoter of the gene, the leader intron and the first ubiquitin monomer in front of the reporter GUS gene. Histochemical analyses for GUS activity during tobacco plant development revealed that the gene is expressed at variable amounts in many plant tissues with high levels in metabolically active and/or dividing cells and in the vascular tissues of the plant. We also analysed the expression pattern of constructs in which either the intron or the intron together with the first ubiquitin monomer were deleted. Our results indicate that the ubiquitin leader intron is not only a quantitative determinant of gene expression but may also influence the tissue-specific expression pattern.