Processes for modifying plant flowering behavior

Details Processes for modifying plant flowering behavior Processes for modifying plant flowering behavior

1997-07-24

2000-02-15

Fox, David T.

Multicellular living organisms and unmodified parts thereof and

Method of introducing a polynucleotide molecule into or...

The polynucleotide alters plant part growth

800278, 800284, 800288, 800298, 800306, 800312, 800314, 800320, 8003201, 8003202, 800323, 435468, 536 236, 536 237, C12N 1529, C12N 1531, C12N 1582, A01H 500

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060255447

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
This application is a 371 of PCT/EP95/04257 filed Oct. 30, 1995, which U.S.C. .sctn.119 from German patent application Ser. No. P 4439748.8, filed Oct. 31, 1994.
The present invention relates to processes for producing plants whose flowering behavior is modified in comparison with wildtype plants, in particular for producing plants which flower early and to an increased extent. The invention also concerns the plants resulting from that process. Such plants are produced by increasing the sucrose carrier activity in the plants. Furthermore, the invention relates to the use of DNA molecules which encode sucrose carriers in order to modify plant flowering behavior.


FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The flower formation is a precondition for the sexual propagation of plants and is therefore essential for the propagation of plants which cannot be propagated vegetatively as well as for the formation of seeds and fruits. The point of time at which the merely vegetative growth of plants changes into flower formation is of vital importance for example in agriculture, horticulture and plant breeding. Also the number of flowers is often of economic importance, for example in the case of various useful plants (tomato, cucumber, zucchini, cotton etc.) with which an increased number of flowers may lead to an increased yield, or in the case of growing ornamental plants and cut flowers.
For many fields of application it is advantageous if the plants flower early. In the field of agriculture, for example, early flowering would mean for various useful plants that the time between seeding and harvest is shortened and that therefore two harvests per year would be possible and that the period of time between flowering and harvest is prolonged so that an increased yield may be achieved. Also in the field of plant breeding early flowering could contribute to a considerable shortening of the breeding processes and could increase the profitability. It is obvious that early flowering would be economically useful also for horticulture and the growing of ornamental plants.
The research work previously done on the mechanisms that determine the point of time of flower formation of plants does not lead to a clear conclusion which factors are involved and determining. For a number of plants it is known that environmental influences determine the transition of vegetative growth to flower formation, for example light-darkness rhythms, temperature and water supply. It is hardly known how these stimuli are taken up and converted into physiological signals which induce the flower formation in the apical meristem. Various theories have been discussed and a number of possible factors have been taken into consideration, for example flowering hormones (florigen/antiflorigen), carbohydrates, cytokinins, auxin, polyamines and calcium ions (Bernier et al., Plant Cell 5 (1993), 1147-1155).
The control of the point of time of flower formation by regulating exogenous impulses, for example light-darkness rhythm, temperature or water supply, can be put into practice only to a limited extent, for example in greenhouses. In order to achieve early flowering of plants that are grown outdoors, it is necessary to use plants that flower early independent of exogenous impulses. Possibilities to grow such plants are offered by mutagenesis processes, which, however, cannot be applied for all species, by breeding processes, which are, however, very time consuming and have to be carried out separately for every plant species or by genetic engineering. The precondition, however, that genetic engineering can be applied is that gene loci are identified that have a considerable influence on the point of time of flowering and that there are DNA sequences that encode the relevant products. This, however, has not been the case.
For the specie Arabidopsis thaliana, which has been used most widely for research on the point of time of flowering, a number of mutants have been described which flower early in comparison to wildtype plants (see references in Lee et al., Plant Cell 6 (1994

REFERENCES:
patent: 5608146 (1997-03-01), Frommer et al.
patent: 5750362 (1998-05-01), Frommer et al.
Riesmeier et al. EMBOJ 11(13): 4705-4713, 1992.
Ohgawara et al. Protoplasma 116: 145-148, 1983.
Bockmann et al. "Characterization of a chromosomally encoded, non-PTS metabolic pathway for sucrose utilization in Escherichia coli EC3132," Mol. Gen. Genet. (1992) 235: 22-32.
Ebner et al. "DNA sequence of the gene scrA encoding the sucrose transport protein Enzymell.sup.Scr of the phosphotransferase system from enteric bacteria: homology of the Enzymell.sup.Scr and Enzymell.sup.Bgl proteins," Molecular Microbiology (1988) 2: 9-17.
Bernier et al., "Physiological Signals That Induce Flowering", The Plant Cell, pp. 1147-1155, vol. 5, 1993.
Riesmeier, et al., "Evidence for an essential role of the sucrose transporter in phloem loading and assimilate partitioning", EMBO Journal, pp. 1-7, vol. 13, 1994.

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