Multicellular living organisms and unmodified parts thereof and – Method of introducing a polynucleotide molecule into or... – The polynucleotide alters plant part growth
Reexamination Certificate
2001-06-05
2003-05-13
McElwain, Elizabeth F. (Department: 1638)
Multicellular living organisms and unmodified parts thereof and
Method of introducing a polynucleotide molecule into or...
The polynucleotide alters plant part growth
C800S278000, C800S295000, C800S298000, C536S023600, C536S023100, C435S320100, C435S468000, C435S419000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06563023
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a plant phenotype, designated CURLY (CUR), together with DNA and polypeptide sequences associated with the same.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The traditional methods for gene discovery, including chemical mutagenesis, irradiation and T-DNA insertion, used to screen loss of function mutants have limitations. Mutagenic methods such as these rarely identify genes that are redundant in the genome, and gene characterization is time-consuming and laborious.
Activation tagging is a method by which genes are randomly and strongly up-regulated on a genome-wide scale, after which specific phenotypes are screened for and selected. Isolation of mutants by activation tagging has been reported (Hayashi et al., 1992). An activation T-DNA tagging construct was used to activate genes in tobacco cell culture allowing the cells to grow in the absence of plant growth hormones (Walden et al., 1994). Genes have been isolated from plant genomic sequences flanking the T-DNA tag and putatively assigned to plant growth hormone responses. (See, e.g., Miklashevichs et al. 1997, Harling et al., 1997; Walden et. al., 1994; and Schell et al., 1998, which discusses related studies.)
The first gene characterized in Arabidopsis using activation tagging was a gene encoding the histone kinase involved in the cytokinin signal transduction pathway. The gene sequence was isolated from plant genomic DNA by plasmid rescue and the role of the gene, CKI1, in cytokinin responses in plants was confirmed by re-introduction into Arabidopsis (Kakimoto, 1996). This was followed by reports of several dominant mutants such as TINY, LHY and SHI using a similar approach along with the Ds transposable element (Wilson et al., 1996, Schaffer et al., 1998, Fridborg et al., 1999). In a more recent report, activation T-DNA tagging and screening plants for an early flowering phenotype led to the isolation of the FT gene (Kardailsky et al., 1999).
The potential application of activation tagging as a high through put technology for gene discovery has been demonstrated based on screening of several dominant mutant genes involved in photoreceptor, brassinosteroid, gibberellin and flowering signal pathways, as well as disease resistance. (See, e.g., Weigel et al., 2000, Christensen et al., 1998; Kardailsky et al., 1999).
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention provides nucleic acid and amino acid sequences associated with the CURLY (“CUR”) phenotype in plants, identified for its compact stature and curled leaves relative to wild-type Arabidopsis plants.
In one aspect, the invention provides one or more isolated CUR nucleic acid sequences comprising a nucleic acid sequence that encodes or is complementary to a sequence that encodes a CUR polypeptide having at least 70%, 80%, 90% or more sequence identity to the amino acid sequence presented as SEQ ID NO:2.
In another aspect, the polynucleotide comprises a nucleic acid sequence that hybridizes, under high, medium, or low stringency conditions to the nucleic acid sequence, or fragment thereof, presented as SEQ ID NO:1, or the complement thereof.
In a related aspect, expression of one or more of such CUR polynucleotides in a plant is associated with the CUR phenotype.
The invention further provides plant transformation vectors, plant cells, plant parts and plants comprising a CUR nucleic acid sequence.
Expression of such a CUR nucleic acid sequence in a plant is associated with the CUR phenotype, presented as a leaf morphology phenotype that may also include compact stature and/or late flowering phenotypes.
The expression of a CUR nucleic acid sequence may be modified in ornamental plants, fruit and vegetable-producing plants, grain-producing plants, oil-producing plants and nut-producing plants, as well as other crop plants, resulting in the CUR phenotype.
In a further aspect the invention provides a method of producing the CUR phenotype in a plant by introducing a CUR nucleic acid sequence into plant progenitor cells and growing the cells to produce a transgenic plant.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
I. Definitions
Unless otherwise indicated, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as they would to one skilled in the art of the present invention. Practitioners are particularly directed to Sambrook et al., 1989, and Ausubel FM et al., 1993, for definitions and terms of the art. It is to be understood that this invention is not limited to the particular methodology, protocols, and reagents described, as these may vary.
All publications cited herein, and listed below immediately after the examples, are expressly incorporated herein by reference for the purpose of describing and disclosing compositions and methodologies that might be used in connection with the invention.
As used herein, the term “vector” refers to a nucleic acid construct designed for transfer between different host cells. An “expression vector” refers to a vector that has the ability to incorporate and express heterologous DNA fragments in a foreign cell. Many prokaryotic and eukaryotic expression vectors are commercially available. Selection of appropriate expression vectors is within the knowledge of those having skill in the art.
A “heterologous” nucleic acid construct or sequence has a portion of the sequence which is not native to the plant cell in which it is expressed. Heterologous, with respect to a control sequence refers to a control sequence (i.e. promoter or enhancer) that does not function in nature to regulate the same gene the expression of which it is currently regulating. Generally, heterologous nucleic acid sequences are not endogenous to the cell or part of the genome in which they are present, and have been added to the cell, by infection, transfection, microinjection, electroporation, or the like. A “heterologous” nucleic acid construct may contain a control sequence/DNA coding sequence combination that is the same as, or different from a control sequence/DNA coding sequence combination found in the native plant.
As used herein, the term “gene” means the segment of DNA involved in producing a polypeptide chain, which may or may not include regions preceding and following the coding region, e.g. 5′ untranslated (5′ UTR) or “leader” sequences and 3′ UTR or “trailer” sequences, as well as intervening sequences (introns) between individual coding segments (exons).
As used herein, “percent (%) sequence identity” with respect to a subject sequence, or a specified portion of a subject sequence, is defined as the percentage of nucleotides or amino acids in the candidate derivative sequence identical with the nucleotides or amino acids in the subject sequence (or specified portion thereof), after aligning the sequences and introducing gaps, if necessary to achieve the maximum percent sequence identity, as generated by the program WU-BLAST-2.0a19 (Altschul et al., J. Mol. Biol. (1997) 215:403-410; blast.wustl.edu/blast/README.html website) with all the search parameters set to default values. The HSP S and HSP S2 parameters are dynamic values and are established by the program itself depending upon the composition of the particular sequence and composition of the particular database against which the sequence of interest is being searched. A % identity value is determined by the number of matching identical nucleotides or amino acids divided by the sequence length for which the percent identity is being reported. “Percent (%) amino acid sequence similarity” is determined by doing the same calculation as for determining % amino acid sequence identity, but including conservative amino acid substitutions in addition to identical amino acids in the computation.
The term “% homology” is used interchangeably herein with the term “% identity.”
A nucleic acid sequence is considered to be “selectively hybridizable” to a reference nucleic acid sequence if the two sequences specifically hybridize to one another under moderate to high stringency hybridization and wash conditions. Hybridization conditions are based on the m
Bates Stanley R.
Bovee-Picciano Susan M.
Liu Alex
Mathews Helena V.
Van Winkle Jill
Agrinomics LLC
Baum Stuart F.
Brunelle Jan P.
McElwain Elizabeth F.
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