S-adenosyl-L-methionine synthetase promoter and its use in expression of transgenic genes in plants

A recombinant DNA construct comprising a first isolated nucleic acid fragment encoding a polypeptide with acetolactate synthase activity, wherein said polypeptide has one or both of the following mutations, an amino acid other than proline in a conserved amino acid region G-Q-V-P and and amino acid other than tryptophan in a conserved amino acid region G-M-V-V/M-Q-W-E-D-R-F, and said polypeptide is resistant to at least one inhibitor of acetolactate synthase, operably linked to a second isolated nucleic acid fragment, having constitutive promoter activity in a plant, selected from the group consisting of:

• a) an isolated nucleic acid fragment comprising the nucleic acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:6;
• b) an isolated nucleic acid fragment comprising the nucleic acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:14;
• c) an isolated nucleic acid fragment comprising nucleotides 4-644 of SEQ ID NO:6;
• d) an isolated nucleic acid fragment comprising nucleotides 1-1496 of SEQ ID NO:14;
• e) an isolated nucleic acid fragment comprising a subfragment of SEQ ID NO:6, wherein the subfragment has constitutive promoter activity in a plant;
• f) an isolated nucleic acid fragment comprising a subfragment of SEQ ID NO:14, wherein the subfragment has constitutive promoter activity in a plant;
• and
• g) an isolated nucleic acid fragment, having constitutive promoter activity in a plant, which can hybridize under stringent conditions with any of the isolated nucleic acid fragments set forth in (a) through (f).