Strong activation domain

A host plant cell comprising a nucleic acid construct encoding a chimeric polypeptide comprising a transcription activation domain covalently fused to a transcription regulatory polypeptide, wherein the transcription activation domain and the transcription regulatory polypeptide are mutually heterologous and do not occur in nature in the same protein, or do not occur in the same copy number or configuration in nature;

• and
• wherein the transcription activation domain comprises:
• (i) SEQ ID NO:
• 55;
• (ii) SEQ ID NO:
• 56;
• (iii) SEQ ID NO:
• 94;
• (iv) SEQ ID NO:
• 95;
• (v) an amino acid sequence with a minimum percentage identity to any of SEQ ID NO:
• 37-54, wherein the minimum percentage identity is selected from the group consisting of 100%, 95%, 93.8%, 90%, 87.5%, 85%, 81.2%, 80%, 75.0%, 70%, 68.7%, 65%, 62.5%, 60%, 56.2%, 50%, and 43.7%;
• (vi) an amino acid sequence encoded by a polynucleotide selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO:
• 57-63 and 76-93;
• or
• (vii) an amino acid sequence encoded by a polynucleotide that hybridizes under stringent conditions to the complement of SEQ ID NO:
• 57-63 or 76-93, wherein the stringent conditions comprise at least 6×SSC and 1% SDS at 65° C. with a first wash step for 10 minutes at about 42° C. with about 20% (w/v) formamide in 0.1×SSC and with a subsequent wash step for 10 minutes with 0.2×SSC and 0.1% SDS at 65° C.

A method for increasing the expression of a target polynucleotide sequence, the methods steps comprising:

• (a) generating a nucleic acid construct encoding a chimeric polypeptide comprising a transcription activation domain covalently fused to a transcription regulatory polypeptide, wherein the transcription activation domain and the transcription regulatory polypeptide are mutually heterologous and do not occur in nature in the same protein, or do not occur in the same copy number or configuration in nature;
• wherein the chimeric polypeptide activates transcription of the target polynucleotide sequence to which the chimeric polypeptide binds, and
• wherein the transcription activation domain comprises:
• (i) SEQ ID NO:
• 55;
• (ii) SEQ ID NO:
• 56;
• (iii) SEQ ID NO:
• 94;
• (iv) SEQ ID NO:
• 95;
• (v) an amino acid sequence with a minimum percentage identity to any of SEQ ID NO:
• 37-54, wherein the minimum percentage identity is selected from the group consisting of 100%, 95%, 93.8%, 90%, 87.5%, 85%, 81.2%, 80%, 75.0%, 70%, 68.7%, 65%, 62.5%, 60%, 56.2%, 50%, and 43.7%;
• (vi) an amino acid sequence encoded by a polynucleotide selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO:
• 57-63 and 76-93;
• or
• (vii) an amino acid sequence encoded by a polynucleotide that hybridizes under stringent conditions to the complement of SEQ ID NO:
• 57-63 or 76-93, wherein the stringent conditions comprise at least 6×SSC and 1% SDS at 65° C. with a first wash step for 10 minutes at about 42° C. with about 20% (w/v) formamide in 0.1×SSC and with a subsequent wash step for 10 minutes with 0.2×SSC and 0.1% SDS at 65° C.;
• and
• (b) introducing the nucleic acid construct into a host cell.