Plants and seeds with altered storage compound levels, related constructs and methods involving genes encoding proteins with similarity to bacterial 2,4-dihydroxy-hept-2-ene-1,7-dioic acid class II-like aldolase proteins
View Patent ↗This invention is in the field of plant molecular biology. More specifically, this invention pertains to isolated nucleic acid fragments encoding proteins with similarity to bacterial 2,4-dihydroxy-hept-2-ene-1,7-dioic acid class II-like aldolase proteins in plants and seeds and the use of such fragments to modulate expression of a gene encoding proteins with similarity to bacterial 2,4-dihydroxy-hept-2-ene-1,7-dioic acid class II-like aldolase proteins in a transformed host cell.
1. A transgenic plant comprising a suppression DNA construct, which is capable of suppressing expression of an aldolase-encoding gene, the construct comprising at least one heterologous regulatory element operably linked to:
(a) a polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide having an amino acid sequence of at least 95% sequence identity, based on the Clustal V method of alignment, when compared to SEQ ID NO: 31 or 49; or
(b) a polynucleotide comprising at least 21 contiguous nucleotides of SEQ ID NO: 30 or 48; or
(c) a full complement of the nucleic acid sequence of (a) or (b);
wherein the suppression DNA construct is expressed in the plant to reduce endogenous aldolase activity and wherein seed of the plant has an increase in oil-content of at least 1%, on a dry-weight basis, when compared to a seed of a control plant not comprising said suppression DNA construct.
2. A transgenic seed comprising a suppression DNA construct, which is capable of suppressing expression of an aldolase-encoding gene, the construct comprising at least one heterologous regulatory element operably linked to:
(a) a polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide having an amino acid sequence of at least 95% sequence identity, based on the Clustal V method of alignment, when compared to SEQ ID NO: 31 or 49;
(b) a polynucleotide comprising at least 21 contiguous nucleotides of SEQ ID NO: 30 or 48; or
(c) a full complement of the nucleic acid sequence of (a) or (b);
wherein the suppression DNA construct is expressed in the seed to reduce endogenous aldolase activity and wherein the soybean seed has an increase in oil content of at least 1%, on a dry-weight basis when compared to a seed not comprising said suppression DNA construct.
3. A method for producing a transgenic plant, the method comprising:
growing a transgenic plant regenerated from a plant cell transformed with a suppression DNA construct, which is capable of suppressing expression of an aldolase-encoding gene, the construct comprising at least one heterologous regulatory element operably linked to:
(a) a polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide having an amino acid sequence of at least 95% sequence identity, based on the Clustal V method of alignment, when compared to SEQ ID NO: 31 or 49;
(b) a polynucleotide comprising at least 21 contiguous nucleotides of SEQ ID NO: 30 or 48; or
(c) the full-length complement of (a) or (b);
wherein the suppression DNA construct is expressed in the seed to reduce endogenous aldolase activity in the transgenic plant; and wherein the transgenic plant produces a transgenic seed having an increase in oil content of at least 2%, on a dry-weight basis, as compared to a seed obtained from a non-transgenic plant.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the DNA construct comprises:
(a) a polynucleotide comprising at least 21 contiguous nucleotides of SEQ ID NO: 30 or 48; or
(b) the full-length complement of (a);
wherein (a) or (b) is suppresses expression of an aldolase-encoding gene in the transgenic plant.
5. The transgenic plant obtained by the method of claim 3 .
6. The transgenic plant obtained by the method of claim 4 .
7. The transgenic plant of claim 1 , which is a dicot plant.
8. The transgenic plant of claim 7 , which is a soybean plant.
9. The transgenic seed of claim 2 , which is a dicot seed.
10. The transgenic seed of claim 9 , which is a soybean seed.
11. The transgenic plant of claim 1 , wherein the at least one regulatory element is a seed-specific or seed-preferred promoter.
12. The transgenic seed of claim 2 , wherein the at least one regulatory element is a seed-specific or seed-preferred promoter.
13. The method of claim 3 , wherein the seed is a soybean seed, and wherein the method further comprises processing the transgenic seed to produce soybean oil or a soy protein product.
14. The method of claim 4 , wherein the seed is a soybean seed, wherein the method further comprises processing the transgenic seed to produce soybean oil or a soy protein product.
15. The transgenic plant of claim 1 , wherein the seed of the plant has an increase in oil content of at least 2%.
16. The transgenic seed of claim 2 , wherein the increase in the oil content in the seed is at least 2%.
17. The transgenic plant of claim 1 , wherein the seed of the plant has an increase in oil content of at least 5%.
18. The transgenic seed of claim 2 , wherein the increase in the oil content in the seed is at least 5%.
19. The transgenic plant of claim 1 , wherein the seed of the plant has an increase in oil content of at least 10%.
20. The transgenic seed of claim 2 , wherein the increase in the oil content in the seed is at least 10%.