Multicellular living organisms and unmodified parts thereof and – Plant – seedling – plant seed – or plant part – per se – Higher plant – seedling – plant seed – or plant part
Patent
1998-04-06
2000-09-26
Nelson, Amy J.
Multicellular living organisms and unmodified parts thereof and
Plant, seedling, plant seed, or plant part, per se
Higher plant, seedling, plant seed, or plant part
435419, 800284, 800286, 800287, 800298, A01H 500, A01H 508, C12N 514, C12N 1582
Patent
active
061245283
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
INTRODUCTION
1. Technical Field
The present invention is directed to compositions and methods related to modification of the sweetness of selected plant tissues. The invention is exemplified by plants, plant parts, and plant cells transformed with one or more copies of a transgene comprising DNA encoding SPS and a transcriptional initiation region functional in plants.
2. Background
Sucrose is one of the primary end products of photosynthesis in higher plants. It is also the major carbohydrate transported to sucrose accumulating, or carbon sink, tissues for plant growth and development. Plant regions, such as leaf tissue, where sucrose is synthesized are commonly referred to as sucrose source tissue. Plant storage organs, such as roots or tubers, and fruits are examples of sink tissues. The sucrose translocates from the mature leaf (source) to any tissue requiring photoassimilate (sink), especially growing tissues including young leaves, seeds, and roots. Difficulties in the purification of sucrose phosphate synthase (SPS) from plants have interfered with efforts to characterize this enzyme. SPS catalyses the formation of sucrose, phosphate, the sucrose precursor molecule, from fructose-6 phosphate and UDP-glucose in photosynthetically active plant cells. Sucrose phosphatase then acts on the sucrose phosphate moiety, in an irreversible reaction, to remove the phosphate and to release sucrose.
SPS is considered a rate limiting enzyme in the pathway providing sucrose to growing tissue, therefore the study of SPS and its activity is of special interest. In a recent publication, Walker and Huber, Plant Phys. (1989) 89:518-524, the purification and preliminary characterization of spinach (Spinachia oleracea) SPS was reported. However, monoclonal antibodies specific to the spinach SPS were found to be non-reactive with all other plants tested, "closely related" and "relatively unrelated species", including corn (Zea maize), soybean (Glycine max), barley (Hordeum vulgare), and sugar beet (Beta vulgaris). Thus, additional purified sources of SPS enzyme are needed for effective characterization of this factor. Especially of interest is the characterization of the corn SPS because of its very high export rates, as compared for example, to SPS levels of activity as found in the leaves of soybean.
With the advent of biotechnology, the ability to modify various properties of plants, especially agronomically important crops, is of interest. In this regard, it would be useful to determine the coding sequence for an SPS gene to probe other crop sources, to use such coding sequences to prepare DNA expression constructs capable of directing the expression of the SPS gene in a plant cell and to express a DNA sequence encoding an SPS enzyme in a plant to measure the effects on crop yield due to the increased rate of sucrose translocation to growing tissues.
3. Relevant Literature
The following references are related to expression of SPS in transgenic plants: Sonnewald, et al. (1994) Plant, Cell and Environment 17:649-658; Worrell, et al. (1991) The Plant Cell 3:1121-1130; Micallef, et al. (1995) Planta 196:327-334; Foyer, et al. (1994) Plant Physiol., 105(S), 23; Galtier et al. (1993) Plant Physiol. 101:535-543; and PCT Application No. WO 94/00563. The following references are related to isolation of DNA encoding SPS: Valdez-Alarcon et al., (1996) Gene 170(2):217-222; Sakamoto et al., (1995) Plant Science (Shannon) 112(2):207-217; Heese et al., (1995) Mol. Gen. Genet., 247(4):515-520; Klein et al., (1993) Planta 190(4):498-510; Salvucci et al., (1993) Plant Physiol., 102(2):529-536; Sonnewald et al., (1993) 189(2):174-181; and Herrera-Estrella et al., (1991) J. Cell Biochem. Suppl. 0 (15 Part A) 148. PCT Application WO 94/00563 discloses antisense potato SPS placed behind a tuber promoter and used to alter the sucrose levels in potato. Acid invertase encoding sequences are described by Klann et al., (Plant Phys. (1992) 99:351-353).
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Methods for modifying the sweetness of plant sink tissues are prov
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Calgene LLC
Nelson Amy J.
Rae-Venter Barbara
Wahlsten Jennifer
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