Method of identifying genes involved in cell growth regulation
OwnerJan-Elo Jorgenseninventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method is provided for identifying in eukaryotes nucleic acid sequences that are involved in or suspected of being involved in cell growth regulation comprising mutagenising wild type plants or plants genetically modified to have accelerated tissue growth and selecting mutants having relative to the background and altered phenotype, followed by identifying the mutated gene and using said gene fro idantifying in a eikaryotic organism including a human a sequence involved in cell growth regulation e.g. tumour suppressors.
Claims31
A method of identifying in a eukaryotic target organism a nucleic acid sequence encoding a product that is involved in cell growth regulation in said target organism, the method comprising the steps of:
- (a) providing a plant that is genetically modified to have tissue exhibiting, relative to the tissue of its non-genetically modified parent plant, accelerated growth,
- (b) subjecting a multiplicity of the genetically modified plant, or parts thereof to a mutagenisation treatment,
- (c) selecting from the thus treated plants or parts thereof mutant plants having, relative to the wild type plant or the genetically modified plant of step (a), a phenotype characterised by an altered morphological structure or an altered colour,
- (d) identifying in said selected mutant plants nucleic acid sequence(s) having a nucleic acid sequence which is different from the corresponding sequence(s) in a non-mutagenised wild type plant or the genetically modified plant, and, using said nucleic acid sequence(s),
- (e) identifying in the eukaryotic target organism a target nucleic acid sequence comprising a sequence encoding a product that is involved in cell growth regulation.
A method of determining the tumour suppressor activity, if any, of a gene product encoded by a eukaryotic cell gene, the method comprising the steps of:
- (a) providing a wild type plant or a plant that is genetically modified to have tissue exhibiting, relative to the tissue of its non-genetically modified parent plant, accelerated growth,
- (b) subjecting a multiplicity of the wild type plant or the genetically modified plant or parts thereof to a mutagenisation treatment,
- (c) selecting from the thus treated plants or parts thereof a mutant plant having, relative to the wild type plant or the genetically modified plant of step (a), a phenotype characterised by an altered morphological structure or an altered colour,
- (d) identifying in said selected mutant plant a nucleic acid sequence having a sequence which is different from the corresponding sequence in the non-mutagenised wild type plant or genetically modified plant, and, using said different nucleic acid, identifying in the eukaryotic cell a homologue or analogue gene putatively involved in cell cycle regulation,
- (e) transforming the coding sequence of said homologue or analogue gene into a mutant plant of step (c) under conditions permitting the sequence to be expressed, and
- (f) determining whether or not the thus transformed mutant plant reverts to its wild type phenotype, such reversion being indicative of tumour suppressor activity of the homologue or analogue gene product.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.