Identification of a sugarcane bacilliform virus promoter that is activated by drought stress in plants

Sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) is an important sugar and biofuel crop in the world. It is frequently subjected to drought stress, thus causing considerable economic losses. Transgenic technology is an effective breeding approach to improve sugarcane tolerance to drought using drought-inducible promoter(s) to activate drought-resistance gene(s). In this study, six different promoters were cloned from sugarcane bacilliform virus (SCBV) genotypes exhibiting high genetic diversity. In β-glucuronidase (GUS) assays, expression of one of these promoters (P_SCBV-YZ2060) is similar to the one driven by the CaMV 35S promoter and >90% higher compared to the other cloned promoters and Ubi1. Three SCBV promoters (P_SCBV-YZ2060, P_SCBV-TX, and P_SCBV-CHN2) function as drought-induced promoters in transgenic Arabidopsis plants. In Arabidopsis, GUS activity driven by promoter P_SCBV-YZ2060 is also upregulated by abscisic acid (ABA) and is 2.2-5.5-fold higher when compared to the same activity of two plant native promoters (P_ScRD29A from sugarcane and P_AtRD29A from Arabidopsis). Mutation analysis revealed that a putative promoter region 1 (PPR1) and two ABA response elements (ABREs) are required in promoter P_SCBV-YZ2060 to confer drought stress response and ABA induction. Yeast one-hybrid and electrophoretic mobility shift assays uncovered that transcription factors ScbZIP72 from sugarcane and AREB1 from Arabidopsis bind with two ABREs of promoter P_SCBV-YZ2060. After ABA treatment or drought stress, the expression levels of endogenous ScbZIP72 and heterologous GUS are significantly increased in P_SCBV-YZ2060:GUS transgenic sugarcane plants. Consequently, promoter P_SCBV-YZ2060 is a possible alternative promoter for genetic engineering of drought-resistant transgenic crops such as sugarcane.