A fragment comprising 1 kb of the 5' region and the 81 first nucleotides of the coding region of the tomato nitrate reductase nia gene was placed in translational fusion with the lacZ reporter gene. This construct was introduced in budding and in fission yeast using a derivative of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae/Schizosaccharomyces pombe autonomously replicating vector pUZL. Beta-galactosidase activity was detected in S. pombe but not in S. cerevisiae. Primer extension experiments show that in fission yeast transcripts are initiated at the same starting point as in tomato, indicating for the first time that a plant promoter can be correctly recognized in fission yeast.