Compositions and methods for regulating expression of heterologous nucleotide sequences in a plant are provided. Compositions include nucleotide sequences for several Arabidopsis thaliana ovule somatic tissue-preferred promoters AT-CYP86C1, AT-PPM, AT-EXT, AT-GILT1 and AT-TT2. Also provided is a method for expressing a heterologous nucleotide sequence in a plant using a promoter sequence disclosed herein.