COMPARATIVE SEQUENCE-ANALYSIS OF CIS-ELEMENTS PRESENT IN GLYCINE-MAX L LEGHEMOGLOBIN LBA AND LBC3 GENES

The soybean leghemoglobin lba gene promoter sequence was determined an d aligned with the promoter sequence of the soybean lbc3 gene from the same gene family. Five highly conserved regions were found. There are two large conserved regions, one of which overlaps the basic promoter while the other defines a minimal enhancer in the upstream positive e lements. Within the minimal enhancer, an inverted repeat with similari ty to the binding site of a yeast transcription factor, GCN4, was foun d. This particular repeat is conserved in the promoters of all functio nal soybean lb genes as well as in lb gene promoters from other legume s. This suggests that the inverted repeat is important for leghemoglob in gene expression.