Feruloyl-CoA:monolignol transferases
AssigneeWisconsin Alumni Research Foundation
InventorsJohn Ralph, Steven D. Karlen, Rebecca Anne Smith, Brian Fox, Emily Beebe, Craig Bingman
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The invention relates to feruloyl-CoA:monolignol transferase enzymes and nucleic acids encoding the feruloyl-CoA:monolignol transferase enzymes. The enzymes and/or the nucleic acids enable incorporation of monolignol ferulates into the lignin of plants. The monolignol ferulates include, for example, p-coumaryl ferulate, coniferyl ferulate, and/or sinapyl ferulate.
Claims10
A transgenic plant comprising an isolated nucleic acid molecule, wherein the isolated nucleic acid molecule comprises a nucleotide sequence encoding a polypeptide having feruloyl-CoA:monolignol transferase activity, wherein the polypeptide comprises an amino acid sequence having at least 95% amino acid sequence identity to the amino acid sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO:2, wherein the nucleotide sequence is operably linked to a heterologous promoter functional or active in a plant cell, and wherein expression of the polypeptide in the transgenic plant increases percent of monolignol ferulates in the transgenic plant's lignin as compared to a control plant of the same species lacking the isolated nucleic acid molecule and grown under identical conditions.
A method of obtaining a plant having increased content of monolignol ferulates in lignin within the plant, comprising the steps:
- (i) stably transforming plant cells with an isolated nucleic acid molecule, wherein the isolated nucleic acid molecule comprises a nucleotide sequence encoding a polypeptide having feruloyl-CoA:monolignol transferase activity, wherein the polypeptide comprises an amino acid sequence having at least 95% amino acid sequence identity to the amino acid sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO:2, wherein the nucleotide sequence is operably linked to a heterologous promoter functional or active in a plant cell;
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- (ii) regenerating a transformed plant with the stably transformed plant cells from step (i), wherein genome of the regenerated transgenic plant is stably transformed with the isolated nucleic acid molecule, and wherein the regenerated transgenic plant has increased percent of monolignol ferulates in the regenerated transgenic plant's lignin as compared to a control plant of the same species lacking the isolated nucleic acid molecule and grown under identical conditions.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.