Stable, fertile, high polyhydroxyalkanoate producing plants and methods of producing them

1. A fertile transplastomic plant comprising one or more plastids engineered to contain one or more expression cassettes for the plastid-encoded expression of genes encoding enzymes for the production of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA),

wherein the one or more expression cassettes comprise untranslated regions (UTRs) with a sequence length of about 55 nucleotides or fewer, or

wherein the one or more expression cassettes comprise a total plastidial DNA content of about 3% or less,

wherein the genes encoding enzymes for the production of PHA have codon usage similar to the plastome of the host plant and are inserted into an existing transcriptional unit of the host plastid, and are under the control of the transcriptional unit, and

wherein the fertile transplastomic plant produces greater than 10% polyhydroxyalkanoate per unit dry cell weight (dwt) in leaves and produces seeds that are able to germinate and produce viable transplastomic plants.

2. The transplastomic plant of claim 1 wherein the genes are modified or synthesized to improve codon usage for expression in the plastome of the host plant.

3. The transplastomic plant of claim 1 wherein the transgenic plant is engineered to express one or more genes selected from the group consisting of phaA, phaB, and phaC.

4. The transplastomic plant of claim 1 wherein the plant is a dicot or monocot.

5. The transplastomic plant of claim 1 wherein the plant is selected from the group consisting of B. napus, B. rappa, B. carinata and B. juncea; Camelina sativa, Crambe, jatropha , castor; Arabidopsis thaliana ; maize; soybean; cottonseed; sunflower; palm; algae; coconut; safflower; peanut; Sinapis alba ; sugarcane; silage corn; alfalfa; switchgrass; miscanthus; hemp; sorghum; and tobacco.

6. The transplastomic plant of claim 1 , where some regions of the leaves of the plant produce greater than 10% dwt PHA.

7. The transplastomic plant of claim 1 wherein PHA levels can reach at least 20% dwt in some regions of leaf.

8. The transplastomic plant of claim 1 wherein the polyhydroxyalkanoate is poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (P3HB).

9. A seed of the transplastomic plant of claim 1 .

10. A biorefinery fuel or energy feedstock comprising plant material or plant parts of the transplastomic plant according to claim 1 .

11. The feedstock of claim 10 wherein the feedstock comprises at least about 8% PHB throughout the whole plant.

12. A method for producing a fertile transplastomic plant that produces greater than 10% PHA per unit dwt in its leaves, the method comprising:

selecting a host plant; and

transfecting one or more plastids of the host plant with a vector containing one or more expression cassettes for the plastid-encoded expression of genes encoding enzymes for the production of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), the expression cassettes comprising:

(a) genes encoding enzymes for the production of PHA, wherein the genes are selected for codon usage and GC content similar to the plastome of the host plant, are inserted into an existing transcriptional unit of the host plastid and are under the control of the transcriptional unit;

(b) untranslated regions (UTRs) with a sequence length of about 55 nucleotides or fewer; and

(c) a total plastidial DNA content of about 3% or less of the vector excluding a left flank and a right flank that together mediate integration of the vector into the one or more plastids;

wherein the fertile transplastomic plant produces seeds that are able to germinate and produce viable transplastomic plants.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the polyhydroxyalkanoate comprises P3HB.

14. A method for producing a fertile transplastomic plant that produces PHA in its leaves, the method comprising:

selecting a host plant; and

transfecting one or more plastids of the host plant with a vector comprising:

(a) a left flank and a right flank that together mediate integration of the vector into the one or more plastids;

(b) genes between the left flank and right flank, wherein the genes encode enzymes for the production of PHA and have codon usage and GC content similar to the plastome of the host plant,

and

(c) one or more untranslated regions (UTRs) which allow a high level of expression of the genes, wherein sequence identity of the one or more UTRs with the host plastome is sufficiently low that, after the vector is integrated into the host plastid, the rate of recombination of the vector sequences with the host plastome is reduced relative to a corresponding host plastid not transfected with the UTRs;

thereby producing a fertile transplastomic plant that produces greater than 10% polyhydroxyalkanoate per unit dry cell weight (dwt) in its leaves and produces seeds that are able to germinate and produce viable transplastomic plants.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the polyhydroxyalkanoate comprises P3HB.

16. A fertile transplastomic plant produced according to the method of claim 12 .