Isolation and preliminary sequence characterization of beta-amylase gene promoters in rye [Secale cereale L.]

The isolation of rye ß-Amy1 and ß-Amy2 gene promoters from nuclear DNA using the inverse polymerase chain reaction (IPCR) technique and characterization of their sequences are presented. The conservation of ß-amylasc coding sequences allowed for simultaneous IPCR amplification of two different promoters with primers designed on the basis of the single known cDNA sequence. Two ß-amylasc gene promoters display a low sequence similarity (47%). Beside consensus TATA and CCAAT boxes, other sequence motives common to both promoters were found. In addition, the homology of amino acid sequences of plant ß-amylases available in the database is discussed.