Plant transcription coactivators with histone acetyl transferase activity

Abstract

This invention relates to isolated nucleic acid fragments encoding all or a substantial portion of a maize, rice, or wheat histone acetyltransferase protein. The invention also relates to the construction of chimeric genes encoding all or a portion of a maize, rice, or wheat histone acetyltransferase protein, in sense or antisense orientation, wherein expression of the chimeric gene results in production of altered levels of a maize, rice, or wheat histone acetyltransferase protein in a transformed host cell. The invention also relates to targeting of the maize, rice, or wheat histone acetyltransferase protein to a novel promoter region by the addition of either a DNA-binding domain or a protein-protein interaction domain, to acetylate the core histone, weaken the interaction between core histones and DNA, open up chromatin structure, increase the efficiency of transcriptional initiation, thus leading to a higher level of gene expression.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.