There are different direct and indirect methods available to study gene expression in plant systems. In this protocol we describe a modified expression assay using transgenic plants expressing the luciferase gene under the control of phosphate transporter PHT1;1 promoter. This assay was originally optimized for analyzing the repression of PHT1;1 promoter in response to arsenate As (V) which can be adapted to study the kinetics of transcriptional regulation of any gene in response to biotic or environmental stimuli measuring Luciferase activity in Arabidopsis thaliana.
Transgenic Arabidopsis seedlings expressing Luciferase fused to promoter of interest (i.e. PHT1;1:Luc in pGWB435 binary vector) Note: Vector information can be find at: http://shimane-u.org/nakagawa/pgwb-tables/2.htm.
TC, M., Castrillo, G. and Leyva, A. (2014). Determination of Luciferase Activity in Arabidopsis seedling. Bio-protocol 4(12): e1160. DOI: 10.21769/BioProtoc.1160.