The invention provides for a chimeric construct comprising a regulatory region obtained from a hydroperoxide lyase (HPL) gene in operative association with a heterologous gene of interest. Even though the HPL gene is known to be expressed in response to wounding, unexpectedly, it was observed that the HPL regulatory region or one or more fragments thereof, result in constitutive expression of the gene of interest in a range of tissues and organs in the absence of any wound or stress treatment. This invention also provides for a transgenic organism comprising the chimeric construct defined above, and a method for preparing a transgenic organism using the chimeric construct.