Results similar to those obtained with Gladiolus were also
observed with orchid, another nongraminaceous monocot (data
not shown). The 35S promoter was most active in bombarded
orchid protocorms followed by the mas2 promoter. Our results
suggest that some nongraminaceous ornamental monocots should
be treated more like dicots rather than monocots when issues regarding
transgene expression are being addressed. It should be recognized
that the relative efticiencies of the promoters in regenerated Gladiolus
plants may be different from the values obtained in our transient
assays, and this will be addressed when transgenic plants containing
these gusA gene fusions are available for analysis.