Programmable epigenetic control of gene expression in plants
AssigneeSound Agriculture Company
InventorsTravis Bayer, Kevin L. Schneider, Aden Kinne, Jennifer Adele Samson, Itxaso Garay
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Abstract
Disclosed herein are artificially synthesized nucleic acid constructs to guide an epigenetic modification for at least partially silencing or activating a target gene in an organism such as a plant or seed, and formulations thereof. Also disclosed are methods of applying such nucleic acid constructs to the plant or to the seed. Also disclosed are engineered seeds and plants obtained by the epigenetic modification.
Claims15
A method of inducing an epigenetic modification in a plant organism, comprising applying a formulation to an agricultural object, the formulation comprising an excipient and a double stranded artificial nucleic acid construct consisting of (a) a first strand and a second strand each having a length of 20 to 30 nucleotides or nucleosides or a combination thereof;
- and (b) a terminal overhang at each of the 3′ end of the first strand and second strand;
- wherein:
- both of the 3′ terminal end overhangs comprise a ribose unit having a methoxy group (—O-Me) at a 2′ position;
- wherein every sugar in the double stranded artificial nucleic acid construct is a deoxyribose except for the terminal 3′ sugar of the first strand and the second strand,
- wherein the agricultural object is a seed, a plant, a constituent of a plant, or any combination thereof,
- wherein the applying causes methylation of at least one base of a nucleotide or nucleoside in a nucleic acid sequence of a gene of the agricultural object, and
- wherein the applying causes methylation via an interaction between the double stranded artificial nucleic acid construct and an endogenous DNA methyltransferase.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.