Review: Plant synthetic promoters and transcription factors

cobtliustewartMany plant traits are multigenic, so engineering them requires modulating the expression of several genes simultaneously. Synthetic promoters and transcription factors offer such a possibility. For example, a cis-element can be introduced into the promoter of each gene of interest, and a synthetic transcription factor that activates gene expression via this cis-element and is itself activatable can be introduced into the cells. Liu and Stewart review the current status and trends, and future applications, of plant synthetic promoters and transcription factors. Curr. Opin. Biotech. 10.1016/j.copbio.2015.10.001