GENERATION OF PLANTS WITH ALTERED PROTEIN, FIBER, OR OIL CONTENT
The present invention is directed to plants that display an improved oil quantity phenotype or an improved meal quality phenotype due to altered expression of an IMQ nucleic acid. The invention is further directed to methods of generating plants with an improved oil quantity phenotype or improved meal quality phenotype.
1 . A transgenic plant, comprising a plant transformation vector comprising a nucleotide sequence that encodes or is complementary to a sequence that encodes an IMQ polypeptide comprising an amino acid sequence at least 95% identical to the amino acid sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO: 8, whereby the transgenic plant has an improved meal quality phenotype, relative to control plants.
2 . The transgenic plant of claim 1 , wherein the IMQ polypeptide comprises the amino acid sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO: 8.
3 . The transgenic plant of claim 1 , which is selected from the group consisting of plants of the Brassica species, including canola and rapeseed, soy, corn, sunflower, cotton, cocoa, safflower, oil palm, coconut palm, flax, castor, peanut, wheat, oat, and rice.
4 . The transgenic plant of claim 3 , wherein the plant is canola.
5 . The transgenic plant of claim 1 , wherein an improved meal quality phenotype comprises an increase in available metabolizable energy in meal produced from seeds of the transgenic plant, relative to control plants.
6 . The transgenic plant of claim 5 , wherein an increase in available metabolizable energy comprises an altered protein and/or fiber content in the seeds of the transgenic plant.
7 . The transgenic plant of claim 6 , wherein the protein content is increased and/or the fiber content is decreased.
8 . The transgenic plant of claim 7 , wherein an increase in available metabolizable energy comprises a decreased fiber content in the seeds of the transgenic plant.
9 . A plant part obtained from the plant according to claim 1 .
10 . The plant part of claim 9 , which is a transgenic seed, wherein the transgenic seed comprises the plant transformation vector.
11 . Meal, feed, or food produced from the transgenic seed of claim 10 .
12 . A method of producing meal, comprising growing the transgenic plant of claim 1 , and recovering meal from the plant, thereby producing meal.
13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the meal is produced from seeds of the plant.
14 . A method of producing an improved meal quality phenotype in a plant, said method comprising:
a) introducing into progenitor cells of the plant a plant transformation vector comprising a nucleotide sequence that encodes or is complementary to a sequence that encodes an IMQ polypeptide comprising an amino acid sequence at least 95% identical to the amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO: 8; and
b) growing the transformed progenitor cells to produce a transgenic plant, wherein the nucleotide sequence is expressed, and the transgenic plant exhibits an improved meal quality phenotype relative to control plants,
thereby producing the improved meal quality phenotype in the plant.
15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the IMQ polypeptide comprises the amino acid sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO: 8.
16 . A plant obtained by a method of claim 14 .
17 . The plant of claim 16 , which is selected from the group consisting of plants of the Brassica species, including canola and rapeseed, soy, corn, sunflower, cotton, cocoa, safflower, oil palm, coconut palm, flax, castor, peanut, wheat, oat, and rice.
18 . The plant of claim 17 , wherein the plant is canola.
19 . The plant of claim 16 , wherein the plant is selected from the group consisting of a plant grown from said progenitor cells, a plant that is the direct progeny of a plant grown from said progenitor cells, and a plant that is the indirect progeny of a plant grown from said progenitor cells.
20 . A method of generating a plant having an improved meal quality phenotype, comprising:
identifying a plant that has an allele in its ortholog of the A. thaliana IMQ gene where the wildtype A. thaliana gene has the nucleic acid sequence set forth as SEQ ID NO: 7, which allele results in improved meal quality phenotype, compared to plants lacking the allele, wherein identifying a plant comprises analyzing the sequence of the allele of the ortholog of the IMQ gene in the plant; and
generating progeny of said identified plant, wherein the generated progeny inherit the allele and have the improved meal quality phenotype,
thereby generating a plant having an improved meal quality phenotype.
21 . The method of claim 20 that employs candidate gene/QTL methodology or TILLING methodology.