Antisense regulation of gene expression in plant cells

Abstract

Regulation of expression of genes encoded for in plant cell genomes is achieved by integration of a gene under the transcriptional control of a promoter which is functional in the host and in which the transcribed strand of DNA is complementary to the strand of DNA that is transcribed from the endogenous gene(s) one wishes to regulate. The integrated gene, referred to as antisense, provides an RNA sequence capable of binding to naturally existing RNAs, exemplified by polygalacturonase, and inhibiting their expression, where the anti-sense sequence may bind to the coding, non-coding, or both, portions of the RNA. The antisense construction may be introduced into the plant cells in a variety of ways and be integrated into the plant genome for inducible or constitutive transcription of the antisense sequence. A wide variety of plant cell properties may be modified by employing this technique.

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