ORIGINAL PAPER Screening promoters for Anthurium transformation using transient expression Tracie K. Matsumoto • Lisa M. Keith • Roxana Y. M. Cabos • Jon Y. Suzuki • Dennis Gonsalves • Roger Thilmony Received: 1 October 2012 / Revised: 7 November 2012 / Accepted: 12 December 2012 / Published online: 3 January 2013 Ó Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg (outside the USA) 2012 Abstract Key message There are multiple publications on Anthurium transformation, yet a commercial product has not been achieved. This may be due to use of non- optimum promoters here we address this problem. Abstract Different promoters and tissue types were evaluated for transient b-glucuronidase (GUS) expression in Anthurium andraeanum Hort. ‘Marian Seefurth’ fol- lowing microprojectile bombardment. Plasmids containing the Ubiquitin 2, Actin 1, Cytochrome C1 from rice, Ubiq- uitin 1 from maize and 35S promoter from Cauliflower Mosaic Virus fused to a GUS reporter gene were bom- barded into in vitro grown anthurium lamina, somatic embryos and roots. The number of GUS foci and the intensity of GUS expression were evaluated for each con- struct. Ubiquitin promoters from rice and maize resulted in the highest number of expressing cells in all tissues examined. Due to the slow growth of anthurium plants, development of transgenic anthurium plants takes years. This research has rapidly identified multiple promoters that express in various anthurium tissues facilitating the development of transformation vectors for the expression of desirable traits in anthurium plants. Keywords Anthurium Á Monocot Á Promoter Á Transformation Á GUS Abbreviations 2,4-D 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid GUS b Glucuronidase HDOA Hawaii Department of Agriculture MS Murashige and Skoog USDA United States Department of Agriculture X-Gluc 5-Bromo-4 chloro-3 indolyl-b-D-glucoride, cyclohexyl ammonium salt Introduction Anthurium andraeanum Hort, cultivars derived from Anthurium andraeanum Linden ex. Andre and other spe- cies comprise the majority of the cut-flower production in the Netherlands and other tropical and subtropical regions including Hawaii (Matsumoto and Kuehnle 1997). In 2008, 81.4 million stems of anthuriums were sold on the Dutch auctions for 39.0 million € (*$57.3 million) conversion based on 2008 average of $1.47 US/1 € (CBI Market Survey 2009; Board of Governers of the Federal Reserve System 2012). In Hawaii, anthuriums are the top cut-flower with 6.3 million stems sold for $3.5 million in 2008 (HDOA Agricultural Development Division and USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service 2011). In subtropical and tropical regions, where anthuriums are grown under natural or artificial shade, bacterial dis- eases are often major hindrances in production. In Hawaii, the bacterial blight caused by the pathogen Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. dieffenbachiae caused severe damage to anthurium industry reaching epidemic proportions in 1985–1989, destroying the production of approximately Communicated by H. Jones. T. K. Matsumoto (&) Á L. M. Keith Á R. Y. M. Cabos Á J. Y. Suzuki Á D. Gonsalves USDA, ARS, Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center, 64 Nowelo Street, Hilo 96720, HI, USA e-mail: tracie.matsumoto@ars.usda.gov R. Thilmony USDA, ARS, Western Regional Research Center Crop Improvement and Utilization Research Unit, 800 Buchanan Street, Albany 94710-1105, CA, USA 123 Plant Cell Rep (2013) 32:443–451 DOI 10.1007/s00299-012-1376-z