Plant cellulose synthases
AssigneeE. I. Du Pont de Nemours and Company
InventorStephen M. Allen
Life of this patent
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Abstract
This invention relates to an isolated nucleic acid fragment encoding a cellulose synthase. The invention also relates to the construction of a chimeric gene encoding all or a portion of the cellulose synthase, in sense or antisense orientation, wherein expression of the chimeric gene results in production of altered levels of the cellulose synthase in a transformed host cell.
Claims22
An isolated polynucleotide comprising:
- (a) a first nucleotide sequence encoding a first polypeptide having cellulose synthase activity, wherein the amino acid sequence of the first polypeptide and the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:
- 30 have at least 80% identity based on the Clustal alignment method,
- (b) a second nucleotide sequence encoding a second polypeptide having cellulose synthase activity, wherein the amino acid sequence of the second polypeptide and the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:
- 26 have at least 85% identity based on the Clustal alignment method,
- (c) a third nucleotide sequence encoding a third polypeptide having cellulose synthase activity, wherein the amino acid sequence of the third polypeptide and the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:
- 24 have at least 90% identity based on the Clustal alignment method,
- (d) a fourth nucleotide sequence encoding a fourth polypeptide having cellulose synthase activity, wherein the amino acid sequence of the fourth polypeptide and the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:
- 28 have at least 95% identity based on the Clustal alignment method, or
- (e) the complement of the first, second, third, or fourth nucleotide sequence.
An isolated polypeptide having cellulose synthase activity, wherein the polypeptide comprises:
- (a) a first amino acid sequence, wherein the first amino acid sequence and the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:
- 30 have at least 80% identity based on the Clustal alignment method,
- (b) a second amino acid sequence, wherein the second amino acid sequence and the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:
- 26 have at least 85% identity based on the Clustal alignment method,
- (c) a third amino acid sequence, wherein the third amino acid sequence and the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:
- 24 have at least 90% identity based on the Clustal alignment method, or
- (d) a fourth amino acid sequence, wherein the fourth amino acid sequence and the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:
- 28 have at least 95% identity based on the Clustal alignment method.
A method for evaluating at least one compound for its ability to inhibit the activity of a cellulose synthase, the method comprising the steps of:
- (a) transforming a host cell with a chimeric gene comprising a nucleic acid fragment encoding a cellulose synthase polypeptide, operably linked to at least one suitable regulatory sequence;
- (b) growing the transformed host cell under conditions that are suitable for expression of the chimeric gene wherein expression of the chimeric gene results in production of the cellulose synthase encoded by the operably linked nucleic acid fragment in the transformed host cell;
- (c) optionally purifying the cellulose synthase polypeptide expressed by the transformed host cell;
- (d) treating the cellulose synthase polypeptide with a compound to be tested;
- and
- (e) comparing the activity of the cellulose synthase polypeptide that has been treated with a test compound to the activity of an untreated cellulose synthase polypeptide, and selecting compounds with potential for inhibitory activity.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.