The present invention includes expression cassettes that contain regulatory sequences derived from a target gene, for example, regulatory sequences from the HSP70, Ubi158, and Ubi361 genes, for expression of recombinant gene products in plants. Developmental expression profiling data were used to indentify several gene candidates for strong constitutive expression cassette development. Three expression cassettes were developed. They are based on the ZmHSP70, ZmUbi158, and ZmUBI361 genes.