THE UPSTREAM DOMAIN OF SOYBEAN OLEOSIN GENES CONTAINS REGULATORY ELEMENTS SIMILAR TO THOSE OF LEGUME STORAGE PROTEINS

Seed reserve storage products consisting of proteins, oil and starch a re accumulated in a developmentally coordinated pattern. The control o f the vacuolar storage protein expression has been shown to be transcr iptionally regulated and involves a series of positive and negative re gulatory as well as enhancing gene elements. We have analyzed the upst ream sequence of the genes encoding the soybean oleosins, the protein that encases the oil body. We have found that soybean oleosin genes po ssess regulatory elements in upstream domain that are similar to those found in vacuolar storage protein genes. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B. V.