Receptor kinase, Bin1

Details Receptor kinase, Bin1 Receptor kinase, Bin1

1997-06-24

2001-06-12

Fox, David T. (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, C800S286000, C800S279000, C800S301000, C536S023600, C536S024500, C435S007100, C435S007800, C435S069100, C435S320100, C435S194000, C435S419000, C435S421000, C435S468000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06245969

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to plant genetic engineering, and specifically to a novel gene useful for producing genetically engineered plants characterized as having a phenotype of increased crop yield, enhanced disease resistance and longer-lived vegetative growth phase.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The brassinosteroids are a unique class of biologically active natural products that possess plant steroidal hormone activity. Their low effective concentrations for use on crops make them environmentally safe and those brassinosteroids used on a large scale are generally non-toxic. At the physiological level, brassinosteroids elicit many changes and could represent a new class of hormones in plants. The economic aspects of the brassinosteroids may have worldwide effects. For example, the brassinosteroids can be used as plant protectants from both pesticide and environmental adversity. In addition, brassinosteroids appear to be useful for insect control. Further, brassinosteroids may regulate some stage of the reproductive cycle in plants, thereby providing the means to increase or decrease the reproductive process. For example, in certain horticultural crops, it may be desirable to eliminate the flowering process to ensure continuous production of other tissues such as leaves, bulbs and other storage organs. This modulation of the reproductive process could be important in the control of certain seed bearing weeds, where cessation of the flowering cycle eliminates future generations. Brassinosteroids also appear to stimulate root growth, and external application causes no deformity of plants.
Brassinosteroids qualify for classification as biochemical pesticides. Such pesticides are generally distinguished from conventional chemical pesticides by their unique modes of action, low effective concentration, target species, and specificity. Historically, the brassinosteroids have not been used in actual agricultural applications due to the expense involved in producing them as well as the difficulty in purifying them.
It is known that once hormones, such as glucocorticoid, enter a cell, they bind to specific receptor proteins, thereby creating a ligand/receptor complex. The binding of the hormone to the receptor is believed to initiate an allosteric alteration of the receptor protein. As a result, it is believed that the ligand/receptor complex is capable of binding with high affinity to certain specific sites on the chromatin nucleic acid. Such sites, which are known as response elements, modulate expression of nearby target gene promoters.
Recent evidence indicates that in addition to intracellular, genomic effects, steroids also exhibit non-genomic effects, i.e., they affect the surface of cells and alter ion permeability, as well as release of neurohormones and neurotransmitters. Steroids such as estrogens and adrenal steroids and their naturally produced and synthetic analogs have shown membrane effects. In view of the foregoing, it appears that steroids may cause synergistic interactions between non-genomic and genomic responses resulting in alterations in neural activity or certain aspects of oocyte and spermatozoa maturation, for example.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Although steroid hormones are important for animal development, the physiological role of plant steroids is largely unknown. The present invention is based on the discovery of the Bin1 gene, which encodes a polypeptide that functionsas a receptor kinase and is involved in the brassinolide response pathway.
In a first embodiment, the invention provides Bin1 polypeptide which binds to brassinosteroids and isolated polynucleotide sequences encoding Bin1.
In another embodiment, the invention provides a method for producing a genetically modified plant characterized as having increased yield as compared to a wild-type plant. The method is based on introducing at least one nucleic acid sequence encoding Bin1 polypeptide, operably associated with a promoter, to a plant cell to obtain a transformed plant cell and producing a plant from the transformed plant cell. Such genetically modified plants may exhibit increased crop yield or increased biomass.
In yet another embodiment, the invention provides a method for producing a plant characterized as having increased yield, by contacting a plant having a native bin1 gene operably linked to its native promoter, with a promoter-inducing amount of an agent which induces bin1 gene expression, wherein elevation of bin1 gene expression results in production of a plant having increased yield as compared to a plant not contacted with the inducing agent. Thus, transcription factors or chemical agents may be used to increase expression of Bin1 in a plant, in order to provide increased yield. Alternatively, plants genetically transfromed with Bin1 can also be contacted with a promoter-inducing amount of an agent which elevates Bin1 expression to obtain plants having increased yield.


REFERENCES:
TE Weier et al Botany pp. 315-319, 1982.*
PC Morris et al GenBank Accession #F13578, 1995.*
PC Morris et al GenBank Accession #F13577, 1995.*
Li et al., “A Putative Leucine-Rich Repeat Receptor Kinase Involved in Brassinosteriod Signal Transduction”,Cell, vol. 90, pp. 929-938, Sep. 5, 1997.

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