The subject application provides polynucleotides, compositions thereof and methods for regulating gene expression in a plant using a promoter that initiates transcription in an inducible manner. In a further aspect of the invention, methods for modulating expression of a gene product in a stably transformed plant comprising the steps of (a) transforming a plant cell with a DNA construct comprising the disclosed promoter or fragments thereof that are capable of driving the expression of an operably linked nucleic acid sequence operably linked to at least one nucleotide sequence (b) growing the plant cell under plant growing conditions and (c) regenerating a stably transformed plant from the plant cell wherein the induced expression of the operably linked nucleotide sequence alters the phenotype of the plant.
