Nuclear proteins bind conserved elements in the abscisic acid-responsive promoter of a rice rab gene.

We have previously shown that the expression of a rice gene, rab-16A, is responsive to abscisic acid (ABA) and osmotic stress in plant tissues and cultured suspension cells. We demonstrate here that transcriptional elements between -294 and -52 of this gene are sufficient to confer ABA-dependent expression on the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase reporter gene in rice protoplasts. Sequence motifs within this 242-base-pair region of the rab-16A gene are conserved among the 5' upstream regions of other ABA-responsive genes. Gel retardation and DNAse I experiments show nuclear factor(s) binding to these sequences. This correlative data indicate that these motifs are involved in the transcription of the rab genes and suggest that they may be ABA-responsive-elements (ABREs).