Modulating drought tolerance in brassicaceae using the kanghan gene family
AssigneeNational Research Council of Canada
InventorsJitao Zou, Wenyun Shen, Peng Gao
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Abstract
Methods are provided for modulating an abiotic stress response to drought in a plant, for example by introducing a heritable change to the plant, which alters the expression in the plant of an endogenous or exogenous protein that is a member of a particular gene family, the Kanghan genes. Similarly, plants and plants cells having such heritable changes are provided.
Claims20
A transgenic Brassicaceae plant or plant cell comprising a recombinant nucleic acid construct encoding at least one inhibitory polynucleotide that targets an endogenous Kanghan gene in the transgenic Brassicaceae plant or plant cell to reduce or eliminate expression of a Kanghan protein encoded by the Kanghan gene, wherein:
- the recombinant nucleic acid construct comprises a nucleic acid molecule encoding the at least one inhibitory polynucleotide operably linked to a heterologous promoter;
- the Kanghan protein has at least 95% sequence identity to the amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:
- 127 or SEQ ID NO:
- 128;
- and
- expression of the at least one inhibitory polynucleotide in the transgenic Brassicaceae plant or plant cell increases drought tolerance of the transgenic Brassicaceae plant or plant cell relative to a control Brassicaceae plant or plant cell of the same species lacking the at least one inhibitory polynucleotide and grown under the same conditions.
A method of obtaining a Brassicaceae plant having increased drought tolerance, the method comprising:
- (i) transforming at least one Brassicaceae plant cell with an inhibitory polynucleotide the targets an endogenous Kanghan gene in the transgenic Brassicaceae plant or plant cell to reduce or eliminate expression of a Kanghan protein encoded by the Kanghan gene;
- (ii) obtaining at least one Brassicaceae plant from the at least one transformed Brassicaceae plant cell produced in step (i);
- and
- (iii) selecting a Brassicaceae plant from the at least one Brassicaceae plant obtained in step (ii) that exhibits increased drought tolerance relative to a control Brassicaceae plant or plant cell of the same species and grown under the same conditions, into which the recombinant nucleic acid construct has not been introduced,
- wherein the Kanghan protein has at least 95% sequence identity to the amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:
- 127 or SEQ ID NO:
- 128.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.