Abstract: The invention provides for a chimeric construct comprising a regulatory region obtained from a hydroperoxide lyase (HPL) gene in operative association with a heterologous gene of interest. Even though the HPL gene is known to be expressed in response to wounding, unexpectedly, it was observed that the HPL regulatory region or one or more fragments thereof, result in constitutive expression of the gene of interest in a range of tissues and organs in the absence of any wound or stress treatment. This invention also provides for a transgenic organism comprising the chimeric construct defined above, and a method for preparing a transgenic organism using the chimeric construct.

Abstract: Posttranslational modification of histones, in particular acetylation and deacetylation are involved in the regulation of gene expression. Histone deacetylases remove acetyl groups from histone proteins. The present invention is directed to a method of regulating gene expression in a transgenic plant comprising, introducing into a plant a first chimeric nucleotide sequence comprising a first regulatory element in operative association with a coding sequence of interest, and an upstream activating sequence, and a second chimeric nucleotide sequence comprising a second regulatory element in operative association with a nucleotide sequence encoding histone deaceytlase and a nucleotide sequence encoding a DNA binding protein, and growing the transgenic plant.

Abstract: The invention provides for a chimeric construct comprising a regulatory region obtained from a hydroperoxide lyase (HPL) gene in operative association with a heterologous gene of interest. Even though the HPL gene is known to be expressed in response to wounding, unexpectedly, it was observed that the HPL regulatory region or one or more fragments thereof, result in constitutive expression of the gene of interest in a range of tissues and organs in the absence of any wound or stress treatment. This invention also provides for a transgenic organism comprising the chimeric construct defined above, and a method for preparing a transgenic organism using the chimeric construct.

Abstract: A process for inducing desiccation tolerance in an in vitro formed plant embryo to enable production of viable artificial seeds is disclosed. The process comprises culturing in vitro plant embryos, stimulating the embryos to proceed through globular and a heart shaped stage into an elongate-torpedo shaped stage and early cotyledon stage, inducing the embryos as early as the torpedo-shaped stage with a source of abscisic acid at an effective concentration of abscisic acid and for a sufficient period of time to cause expression of desiccation tolerance which includes change in cellular metabolism, electron transport processes and oxidation-reduction reactions in the embryos and drying the induced embryos to provide stable viable embryos.