Highly Active Soybean Promoters and Uses Thereof

Abstract

Soybean ubiquitin promoters and processes for expressing nucleic acids in transgenic plants under the control of a soybean ubiquitin promoter are described.

1 - 65 . (canceled) 
     
     
         66 . A process for expressing at least one nucleic acid in a plant, comprising:
 expressing an expression construct in a plant, wherein the expression construct comprises at least one isolated nucleic acid operably linked with a Gmu promoter comprising at least SEQ ID NO: 5.   
     
     
         67 . The process of  claim 66 , wherein the Gmu promoter comprises at least one promoter selected from the group consisting of: at least one Gmucor promoter; at least one Gmupri promoter; and at least one Gmubi promoter. 
     
     
         68 . The process of  claim 66 , wherein the Gmu promoter comprises a sequence selected from the group consisting of: SEQ ID NO: 3; and SEQ ID NO: 2. 
     
     
         69 . The process of  claim 66 , wherein the nucleic acid to be expressed is operably linked to one or more further regulatory sequences. 
     
     
         70 . The process of  claim 66 , wherein the nucleic acid encodes a protein selected from the group consisting of a selection marker, a reporter gene, an enzyme, a protein which mediates resistance to insects, viruses, bacteria, fungi or nematodes, a protein which mediates in plants resistance to drought, cold, heat or salt, an inhibitor, a lectin, an RNAase, a ribozyme, an antibody, a vaccine, a pharmaceutical, an anti-freezing protein, a cytochrome P-450 protein, a transcription activator or repressor and a protein involved in biosynthesis of fine chemicals. 
     
     
         71 . The process of  claim 66 , wherein the construct contains one or more further polynuceotides under the control of the soybean ubiquitin promoter or of another promoter. 
     
     
         72 . The process of  claim 66 , wherein the nucleic acid is expressed in the sense or antisense direction or in the sense and antisense directions. 
     
     
         73 . The process of  claim 66 , wherein the nucleic acid construct is inserted between two T-DNA sections. 
     
     
         74 . The process of  claim 66 , wherein the plant is a monocotyledonous or dicotyledonous plant. 
     
     
         75 . The process of  claim 66 , wherein the plant is a monocotyledonous plant selected the group from consisting of corn, rice, triticale, wheat, barley, oats, rye grass, grass, coconut, palm and millet. 
     
     
         76 . The process of  claim 66 , wherein the plant is a dicotyledonous plant selected from the group consisting of alfalfa, almond,  Arabidopsis , avocado, bay, borage, calendula, canola, carrot, castor-oil plant, cocoa, coffee, cotton, eggplant, evening primrose, hazelnut, hemp, linseed, macadamia, manioc, mustard, oilseed olive, pea, peanut, pepper, pistachios, poplar, poppy, potato, pumpkin, punica, rape, safflower, sesame, soybean, sugar beet, sunflower, tagetes, tea, thistle, tobacco, tomato, verbascum, walnut, and wild roses.