The invention relates to a pathogen-inducible synthetic promoter which is suitable for regulating the transcription of a nucleic acid, and includes a minimal promoter, characterized in that the minimal promoter includes a sequence motif a) dbrmwa or b) twcccmt which is disposed downstream from a TATA region and in front of a transcription starting point which is located on the minimal promoter and at which transcription of the nucleic acid to be regulated starts.