Abstract: The subject invention concerns materials and methods for controlling agricultural traits in plants that are mediated by the plant hormone ethylene. One aspect of the invention concerns a polynucleotide that comprises a sequence encoding a mutant ethylene receptor that is operably linked to a regulatory sequence that drives expression of the mutant receptor in a tissue-specific manner. In an exemplified embodiment, the mutant receptor sequence is an etr1-1 sequence, or a functional fragment or variant thereof, and the regulatory sequence is a promoter sequence from a cotton chitinase gene that can promote expression of the mutant ethylene receptor in abscission zone tissue of a plant. The subject invention also concerns plants and plant tissue transformed with the polynucleotide of the subject invention. Plants expressing the polynucleotide of the subject invention do not drop their flowers in response to exposure to ethylene.

Abstract: The present invention provides recombinant promoters that drive tissue-specific expression, and transgenes comprising such recombinant promoters. Specifically, the invention provides transgenes comprising a recombinant promoter that drives tissue-specific expression of a heterologous nucleic acid molecule in a floral organ. The invention also provides methods for using such transgenes to produce a protein in a host cell or transgenic plant. The invention further provides methods for producing a transgenic plant that produces, for example, longer-lasting flowers, better fragrance, or better or longer-lasting color as compared to a wild type plant.