Towards the identification of cis-elements responsible for the high expression of HMA4, an essential gene for zinc hyperaccumulation in Arabidopsis halleri.

A. halleri is a Zn and Cd hypertolerant and hyperaccumulator plant which stores metals in shoot vacuoles. One key step for hyperaccumulation is a highly efficient root-to-shoot translocation of metals. The Zn/Cd plasmamembrane pump HMA4 (heavy metal ATPase 4) plays a central role in this process and is involved in xylem loading/unloading. Moreover, HMA4 is overexpressed in A. halleri compare to its non-tolerant and non-hyperaccumulator sister, Arabidopsis thaliana. The HMA4 overexpression is determined by a combination of gene triplication and cis-regulatory changes increasing transcription levels of each three HMA4 copies. In this study, we are focusing on the two most active HMA4 promoters and we aim to identify the cis-elements underlying high expression of HMA4 in A. halleri using promoter-reporter constructs. Through deletion analysis, two important regions for a high expression have been identified. Ongoing analysis of more detailed deletions will be presented.