Isolation of promoter sequences from known gene sequences is a tedious task in genome-related research. An efficient method of obtaining the promoter sequences is necessary in order to successfully use targeted promoters for genetic manipulations. Here, efficiency and usefulness of two PCR-based methods, namely: ligation-mediated PCR and thermal asymmetric interlaced (TAIL) PCR, for isolation of promoter sequences of the ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase small subunit (RbcS) gene from green microalgae Ankistrodesmus convolutus (A. convolutus) were evaluated. The results showed that the amplification efficiency of TAIL-PCR was higher than that of the ligation-mediated PCR method, i.e. the amplified promoter fragments of 1.2 and 0.8 kb in length or promoter sequences of 813 and 606 bp (after eliminating the unreadable sequences). A use of TAIL-PCR described here presents a low cost and efficient strategy for the isolation of promoter sequences of known genes, especially in GC-rich regions, and species with little or no available genome information such as A. convolutus.