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
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-10
2002-10-29
Nelson, Amy J. (Department: 1638)
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
C800S278000, C800S284000, C800S286000, C800S287000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06472588
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method for increasing the yield or quality of product from a plant by altering the expression of sucrose phosphate synthase. In particular, the present invention provides a transgenic cotton plant that has an increased level of sucrose phosphate synthetase relative to a non-transgenic cotton plant. Methods are also provided for increasing the yield or the quality of cotton fiber and the yield of cotton seed produced from a cotton plant. General methods are provided for regulating the thickness of cell walls, for increasing the yield and quality of other plant fibers, for regulating the ratio of cellulose to other dry weight components of the plant, for increasing seed yield, and for increasing tolerance of photosynthetic efficiency to cool night temperatures.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The control of high-rate cellulose production and its regulation by temperature are critical to agriculture, since all plant growth (and hence the production of all food crops) depends on cellulose synthesis to build cell walls throughout the vegetative and reproductive parts of the plant. The cellulose within the primary walls of all cells of the plant body is also of direct industrial importance as a digestible part of animal forage and for manufacture of thickeners, ethanol, and other cellulose-based or cellulose-derived products. Furthermore, plant parts based on secondary cell walls with high cellulose content are contained in or compose economically important plant products, including cotton fibers, wood, and fibers in forage crops. The agronomic productivity and product quality of wood and cotton, as well as other fiber crops such as hemp and flax, are in large part determined by the biosynthesis of cellulose. Therefore, an understanding of the basic regulatory mechanisms of cellulose synthesis and how it responds to temperature stress allows for beneficial changes in crop plants (improved product yield and quality) through genetic engineering.
Since cotton fiber weight is more than 90% cellulose, cotton is one particular crop where enhancing the flow of carbon to cellulose production can increase yield and quality. This will be an especially beneficial outcome if it is achievable under diverse environmental conditions encountered in cotton production fields, including cool night temperatures that hinder cotton fiber development. For example, it is known that cool night temperatures hinder the seasonal yield and quality of cotton fiber (Gipson, “Temperature Effects on Growth, Development, and Fiber Properties,” in Mauney, eds.,
Cotton Physiology
, The Cotton Foundation:Memphis, pp. 47-56) because they hinder the rate of cellulose synthesis (Roberts et al., “Effects of Cycling Temperatures on Fiber Metabolism in Cultured Cotton Ovules,”
Plant Physiol
., 100:979-986 (1992)). The ability to manipulate cotton yield and fiber quality parameters and sustain or improve them under diverse and/or stressful environmental conditions will allow for beneficial changes in crop plants (improved product quality) through genetic engineering.
Cotton fiber yield is the most important determinant of the value of the crop to the producer. Reputable cotton breeders have recently pointed out that cotton production has reached a fiber yield plateau, which bodes ill for the financial success of producers given escalating costs. Potential contributors to this problem include the environmental sensitivity of cotton fiber and seed development, the narrow genetic base of commercial cotton, and the recent introduction of transgenic traits such as herbicide and insect resistance through back-crossing with transformed
Gossypium hirsutum
cv. Coker 312. Coker 312 (C312) is an old cultivar frequently used for transformation because of its high regeneration capacity. Use of genetic engineering to make cotton crop production more stress resistant, to expand the genetic potential of cultivated cotton, and to improve the yield of transformed cotton with diverse novel traits will bring needed increases in crop yield.
Similarly, seed yield is of value to the cotton producer since seeds are sold for oil production and animal feed. Another minor component, the short fuzz fibers on each seed, provides added economic value to the seed crop. Increased seed and fuzz fiber yield without sacrifice of lint fiber yield or quality would help the producer recover more profit per acre of cotton production. As for cotton seed, increased yield of any seed crop will be of major benefit to agriculture.
Improved cotton fiber quality parameters such as micronaire, maturity ratio, length, length uniformity, bundle strength, and single fiber strength are desired by the textile industry to produce increasingly high quality products and to take full advantage of modern spinning technologies. Fiber quality parameters should also be high enough for the cotton producer to avoid price discounts when he sells his crop to the gin. For example, in a short growing season on the Texas Southern High Plains, producers often suffer price discounts due to low micronaire. Increasingly high fiber quality achieved through breeding has become a required standard in the cotton industry, and market forces may change so producers are more routinely rewarded with price premiums for higher quality cotton. Therefore, stabilizing or increasing fiber quality under diverse environmental conditions through genetic engineering will increase the profitablity of cotton crop production and provide a new spectrum of material properties for exploitation by the processing industries.
Other plant fibers, although often of different tissue origin, share structural features in common with cotton fibers in being elongated cells with cellulose-rich walls. Like cotton fibers, other plant fibers of industrial use are required to have high quality as defined by factors such as cellulose content and wall thickness, diameter, fineness (or coarseness), length, strength, durability, uniformity, elasticity, and elongation. There is an optimum range of such parameters for each particular fiber source and industrial use. Taking examples from wood fibers used after pulping in paper production, longer fiber length and higher single fiber elongation both promote higher paper tear strength. In addition, thick fiber walls promote high pulp yield and production of absorbent paper with high tearing resistance. However, thinner fiber walls promote fiber collapse and better inter-fiber bonding that aids production of high quality writing paper. Therefore, there exists a need to control cell wall thickness and other fiber quality parameters in either negative or positive directions in diverse fibers to improve their yield or quality or expand the range of their industrial utility.
Maximizing crop productivity and utility per acre is a key component of sustainable agriculture. Enhanced production of multiple products from the same crop, such as seed and fiber, would be useful. Similarly, it will be an advantage to maximize the possibility of a successful crop harvest, for example by generating plants with stiffer stems that can better resist lodging in the field without sacrificing the yield of a seed crop.
An increasing level of CO
2
in the atmosphere is a concern due to predicted association of rising global temperatures. There exists a need for plants that are better able to immobilize CO
2
by conversion of it into useful products, especially products that are typically not burned to regenerate CO
2
.
Cotton leaves assimilate most carbon into starch during the day, and the starch is converted to sucrose at night for translocation to sinks. As just described, cotton fibers are not well adapted to use this sucrose efficiently for cellulose synthesis during cool nights. Therefore, cool nights reduce cotton photosynthetic efficiency during the following warm day (Warner et al., “Response of Carbon Metabolism to Night Temperatures in Cotton,”
Agron. J
., 87:1193-1197 (1995)), possibly due to hindered use of carbohydrate at night. The resulting le
Haigler Candace H.
Holaday A. Scott
Nelson Amy J.
Nixon Peabody LLC
Texas Tech University
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