Transgenic plant having increased expression of wax synthase
AssigneeUniversity of Massachusetts
InventorsOm Parkash Dhankher, Hesham M. Abdullah
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Abstract
Methods for producing plants with improved tolerance to stresses, such as drought or salinity, and transgenic plants made by the methods are disclosed. The methods comprise overexpressing a wax synthase/acyl-CoA:diacylglycerol acyltransferase (WSD1) in the plant.
Claims19
A method of increasing stress-tolerance in a plant or in a part, cell, or propagation material thereof, wherein the stress is drought, high salinity, high temperature, or a biotic stress, comprising:
- expressing a transgenic expression cassette in a plant or in a tissue, organ, part, cell or propagation material thereof, wherein the transgenic expression cassette comprises a nucleic acid sequence encoding a wax synthase/acyl-CoA:diacylglycerol acyltransferase (WSD1) operatively linked to a plant-expressible promoter;
- and
- selecting the plant or the tissue, organ, part, cell or propagation material thereof in which expression of WSD1 is increased, cuticular wax content is increased in leaves or stem, water loss from leaves is reduced, or chlorophyll leaching is reduced in comparison with a plant of the same species, or a tissue, organ part, cell or propagation material thereof, that is not expressing the transgenic expression cassette.
A method of producing a transgenic plant having increased stress-tolerance, wherein the stress is drought, high salinity, high temperature, or a biotic stress, the method comprises
- transforming a plant cell with a transgenic expression cassette comprising a nucleic acid sequence encoding a wax synthase/acyl-CoA:
- diacylglycerol acyltransferase (WSD1) operatively linked to a plant-expressible promoter;
- growing a plant from the transformed plant cell until the plant produces seed;
- and
- selecting a seed from a plant in which expression of WSD1 is increased, cuticular wax content is increased in leaves or stem, water loss from leaves is reduced, or chlorophyll leaching is reduced relative to a plant of the same species not comprising the transgenic expression cassette.
A transgenic expression cassette comprising a polynucleotide encoding a wax synthase/acyl-CoA:diacylglycerol acyltransferase (WSD1) operatively linked to a plant-expressible promoter.
The transgenic plant of claim 22, wherein the plant is selected from Amaranthaceae, Asteraceae, Brassicaceae, Carophyllaceae, Chenopodiaceae, Compositae, Cruciferae, Cucurbitaceae, Labiatae, Leguminosae, Papilionoideae, Liliaceae, Linaceae, Malvaceae, Rosaceae, Rubiaceae, Saxifragaceae, Scrophulariaceae, Solanaceae, Sterculiaceae, Tetragoniaceae, Theaceae, Umbelliferae, or Poaceae.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.