XVI International Botanical Congess

Little is known about the molecular mechanisms operative in the generative cell of flowering plants. We have isolated generative cell specific gene, LGC1, from Lilium. We show that LGC1 promoter is able to direct generative cell specific gene expression in Nicotiana. The bombardment of LGC1-GFP construct into Lilium pollen resulted in high levels of generative cell specific fluorescence due to production of green fluorescent protein. Our recent results show that -218 bp LGC1 promoter deletion construct is sufficient to direct generative cell specific gene expression. However bombardment with -114 bp construct resulted in constitutive expression in plant cells. These results point to existence of a silencer element in the LGC1 promoter which selectively represses LGC1 expression in non male germ line cells.