The unicellular green alga Haematococcus pluvia/is uniquely accumulates carotenoids in the cytoplasm and in late developmental stages turns deep-red in color because of accumulation of astaxanthin in the cytosol. The enzyme, isopentenyl pyrophosphate （IPP） isomerase, plays a key role in astaxanthin biosynthesis of H. pluvialis. In this paper, two separate 5＇-flanking regions （1.8 kb and 2.5 kb） of IPP isomerase gene was cloned through walking upstream firstly. Results of sequence analysis =showed that two separate 5＇-flanking regions of IPP isomerase gene might have similar putative cis-acting elements such as ABA （abscisic acid）-responsive element （ABRE）, drought-responsive element （DRE/C-repeat）, light-responsive element （G-box, GAG-motif, I-box and ATC-motif）, heat-shock element （HSE）, wound-responsive element （WUN-motif）, SA （salicylic acid）-responsive element （TCA-element）, auxin-responsive element （TGA-element）, MeJA （methyl jasmonate）-responsive element （TGACG-element）, enhancer-like element involved in anoxic specific inducibility （GC-motif） and MYB binding sites （MBS and MRE）, except for typical TATA box or CCAAT box, which exhibit diversiform transcriptional patterns of IPP isomerase gene in astaxanthin biosynthesis of Haematococcus pluvialis.
