CLONING, SEQUENCING AND IN SILICO ANALYSIS OF GERMIN-LIKE PROTEIN GENE 1 PROMOTER FROM ORYZA SATIVA L. SSP. INDICA

Germin and germin-like proteins constitute a large family of plant proteins which are also considered as germination markers due to their high expression levels during germination/early growth. These proteins are known to be involved in many stress related processes as well, but their biochemical functions and physiological roles have not been fully described. In order to gain insight into the functions and regulation of a rice germin-like protein gene 1, about 1.2 kb of its upstream region was amplified, cloned, sequenced and analyzed. Analysis showed that this promoter has a very little homology with the promoters of other GLP genes within rice genome. The promoter contains putative regulatory elements of diverse functions and has distinct copy number, location and clustering pattern of regulatory elements in its sequence. This promoter being unique requires further characterization to explore its regulatory role.