New patterns of gene activity in plants detected using an Agrobacterium vector.

A vector has been designed that contains a truncated CaMV (cauliflower mosaic virus) 35S promoter fused to a receptor gene encoding beta-glucuronidase (GUS), placed adjacent to the left border sequence of an Agrobacterium vector. In potato plants transformed with this vector, different patterns of transcription were detected at high frequency using in situ assays for GUS activity. Previous studies in Drosophila using analogous vectors have shown that the new patterns of transcription in many cases reflect the patterns of expression of genes adjacent to the site of vector insertion. If this is also the case in plants, the vector described here will be useful in identifying the activity of genes in different cell types and will assist in determining their function.