ELEVATION OF OIL LEVELS IN PLANTS
This present invention provides a method for increasing oil levels in corn kernel tissue by expression of an HOI001 GBSS allele. The present invention also provides isolated nucleic acid molecules encoding a HOI001 GBSS polypeptide.
1 . A substantially purified nucleic acid molecule selected from the group consisting of:
a) a nucleic acid molecule comprising SEQ ID NO: 1 or the complement thereof;
b) a nucleic acid molecule comprising SEQ ID NO: 11 or the complement thereof; and
c) a nucleic acid molecule which encodes a polypeptide having at least about 94% amino acid identity with SEQ ID NO: 3.
2 . An expression cassette comprising a nucleic acid molecule of claim 1 , wherein said nucleic acid molecule is operably linked to a promoter, which is functional in a plant cell.
3 . A plant cell comprising the expression cassette of claim 2 .
4 . A plant comprising the plant cell of claim 3 .
5 . A plant according to claim 4 , wherein the plant is a monocot.
6 . A plant according to claim 5 , wherein the monocot plant is corn.
7 . Seeds obtained from a corn plant, wherein the seeds comprise the nucleic acid molecule of claim 1 .
8 . An animal feed obtained from the seeds of claim 7 .
9 . A plant having stably incorporated into it's genome a nucleic acid molecule selected from the group consisting of:
a) a nucleic acid molecule comprising SEQ ID NO: 1 or the complement thereof;
b) a nucleic acid molecule comprising SEQ ID NO: 11 or the complement thereof; and
c) a nucleic acid molecule which encodes a polypeptide having at least about 94% amino acid identity with SEQ ID NO: 3.
10 . A plant according to claim 9 , wherein the plant is a monocot.
11 . The monocot plant of claim 10 , wherein the plant is corn.
12 . Seeds obtained from the plant of claim 11 .
13 . Oil obtained from the seeds of claim 12 .
14 . An animal feed obtained from the seeds of claim 12 .
15 . A method of producing a plant having increased levels of oil production, wherein the method comprises:
(a) transforming a plant with an expression cassette comprising a nucleic acid molecule selected from the group consisting of:
i) a nucleic acid molecule comprising SEQ ID NO: 1 or the complement thereof;
ii) a nucleic acid molecule comprising SEQ ID NO: 11 or the complement thereof; and
iii) a nucleic acid molecule which encodes a polypeptide having at least about 94% amino acid identity with SEQ ID NO: 3;
wherein said expression cassette further comprises a promoter region functional in a plant cell, operably linked to said nucleic acid molecule; and
(b) growing the transformed plant.
16 . The method claim 15 , wherein the plant is a monocot.
17 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the monocot plant is corn.
18 . The method of claim 17 , wherein the promoter region is an endosperm promoter region.
19 . The method of claim 18 , wherein the promoter region is the Z27 promoter.
20 . A method of selecting corn germplasm, comprising the steps of:
a) identifying at least one polymorphism unique to the HOI001 GBSS sequence represented in SEQ ID NO: 1;
b) selecting a fragment of SEQ ID NO: 1 containing at least part of one of the identified polymorphisms to be used as a molecular marker;
c) assaying corn plants for the presence of the marker; and
d) selecting plants that contain the marker.