Stress resistant plants
View Patent ↗Stress tolerance in plants and plant cells is achieved by using nucleotide sequences encoding enzymes involved in the NAD salvage synthesis pathway and/or the NAD de novo synthesis pathway from fungal or yeast like organisms other than Saccharomyces cereviseae , e.g., for overexpression in plants.
1. A method for obtaining a plant with increased stress resistance comprising
a. introducing a chimeric gene into a cell of a plant to obtain transgenic cells, said chimeric gene comprising the following operably linked DNA fragments:
i. a plant-expressible promoter;
ii. a DNA region coding for a plant-functional nicotinic acid mononucleotide adenyl transferase enzyme having at least 95% sequence identity to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID No. 31;
iii. a 3′ end region involved in transcription termination and polyadenylation;
b. regenerating said transgenic cells to obtain a population of transgenic plants; and
c. selecting a plant from said population of transgenic plants which exhibits increased stress resistance or selecting a plant which exhibits a reduced level of reactive oxygen species or maintains a high level of NADH under stress conditions when compared to a similar non-transgenic plant.
2. A chimeric gene comprising the following operably linked DNA fragments:
a plant-expressible promoter;
a DNA region coding for a plant-functional nicotinic acid mononucleotide adenyl transferase enzyme having at least 95% sequence identity to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID No. 31; and a 3′ end region involved in transcription termination and polyadenylation.
3. A plant cell comprising the chimeric gene of claim 2 .
4. A plant comprising the plant cell of claim 3 .
5. The plant of claim 4 , wherein said plant has a lower level of reactive oxygen species under stress conditions than a similar plant not comprising such a chimeric gene.
6. A seed of the plant of claim 4 , comprising the chimeric gene comprising the following operably linked DNA fragments:
a plant-expressible promoter;
a DNA region coding for a plant-functional nicotinic acid mononucleotide adenyl transferase enzyme having at least 95% sequence identity to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID No. 31; and
a 3′ end region involved in transcription termination and polyadenylation.
7. A method to increase the stress resistance of a plant or plant cell comprising incorporating into said plant or plant cell the chimeric gene of claim 2 .
8. A method to decrease the level of reactive oxygen species in a plant or a plant cell under stress conditions or to maintain the level of NAD in a plant or plant cell under stress conditions comprising incorporating into said plant or plant cell the chimeric gene of claim 2 .
9. A seed of the plant of claim 5 , comprising the chimeric gene comprising the following operably linked DNA fragments:
a plant-expressible promoter;
a DNA region coding for a plant-functional nicotinic acid mononucleotide adenyl transferase enzyme having at least 95% sequence identity to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID No. 31; and
a 3′ end region involved in transcription termination and polyadenylation.