Gateway-compatible tissue-specific vectors for plant transformation

BACKGROUND: Understanding regulation of developmental events has increasingly required the use of tissue-specific expression of diverse genes affecting plant growth and environmental responses. FINDINGS: To allow for cloning of presumptive promoters with tissue-specific activities, we created two plant expression vectors with multiple cloning sites upstream of a Gateway cassette for expression of either untagged or YFP-tagged genes of interest. For fast and easy tissue-specific expression of desired genes, we further developed an initial set of Gateway-compatible tissue-specific gene expression vectors that allow for the expression of YFP-tagged or untagged proteins driven by the ALCOHOL DEHYDROGENASE1, CHLOROPHYLL A/B BINDING PROTEIN 1, COBRA LIKE1, EXPANSIN7, LATERAL ORGAN BOUNDARIES-DOMAIN 16, SCARECROW, UBIQUITIN10, and WOODEN LEG upstream regulatory regions. CONCLUSIONS: These vectors provide an invaluable resource to the plant community, allowing for rapid generation of a variety of tissue-specific expression constructs.