Stjälkbakterios är ett svårbehandlat problem som orsakar ökande skördeförluster av potatis i Sverige och Europa. Sedan 2005 har den nyligen upptäckta patogenen Dickeya solani spridits genom Europa via handel med sättknölar och orsakat ökande ekonomiska förluster. Under kommande år kan D. solani ge större skador till följd av klimatförändringar, då D. solani är mer aggressiv i högre temperaturer.

Promoters are genetic elements that facilitate the transcription of a gene and they have been found in front of non-coding RNA (ncRNA) genes in different organ-isms, e.g. the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. A similar element, DUSE, has been found in front of ncRNAs in the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum and a part of this project has been to analyze the function of this putative promoter element through cloning and expression studies. A construct to analyze the func-tion of DUSE was successfully designed and introduced into D. discoideum but full expression studies were not finished because of shortage of time.