Computational analysis of cis-acting regulatory elements in 5′ regulatory regions of sucrose transporter gene families in wheat and Arabidopsis

Cis-Acting regulatory elements are important molecular switches involved in the transcriptional regulation of a dynamic network of gene activities controlling various biological processes including abiotic stress responses, hormone responses and developmental processes. Bioinformatics tools were used to identify putative cis-acting regulatory elements that may be involved in the regulation of Triticum aestivum and Arabidopsis thaliana sucrose transporters. The possible cis-acting regulatory elements were predicted by scanning genomic sequences of the sucrose transporter genes translational start sites, using Plant CARE, PLACE and Genomatix Matinspector professional data bases. Several cis-acting regulatory elements that are associated with plant development, plant hormonal regulation and stress response were identified and were present in varying frequencies. Putative cis-acting regulatory elements that possibly are involved in the expression and regulation of sucrose transporter gene families in wheat and Arabidopsis thaliana during cellular development or environmental stress conditions were identified as: A-box, RY, CAT, Pyrimidine-box, Sucrose-box, ABRE, ARF, ERE, GARE, Me-JA, ARE, DRE, GA-motif, GATA, GT-1, MYC, MYB, W-box and I-box. This result explains the probable cis-acting regulatory elements that possibly are involved in the expression and regulation of sucrose transporter gene families in wheat and Arabidopsis thaliana biological processes including abiotic stress responses, hormone responses and developmental processes.