Metal resistance sequences and transgenic plants

A method of using a DNA molecule comprising a plant-expressible nucleotide sequence encoding an organomercury lyase protein operably linked to and expressed under the regulatory control of transcription regulatory sequences to produce a transgenic plant, plant cell or plant tissue with greater resistance to organomercurials than a parental plant, plant cell or plant tissue, said method comprising the steps of:

• a) cloning a plant expressible sequence encoding an organomercury lyase operably linked to transcription regulatory sequences functional in a plant cell to produce an organomercurial resistance expression construct;
• b) cloning the metal resistance expression construct of step (a) into a plasmid vector adapted for use in a plant cell to produce an organomercurial resistance expression vector;
• and
• c) introducing said organomercurial resistance expression vector of step (b) into a plant cell or plant tissue to produce transgenic plant tissue;
• whereby said organomercurial lyase is expressed in said transgenic plant, plant cell or plant tissue, thereby increasing the resistance of said plant to organic mercury compounds.

A method of producing a transgenic plant, transgenic plant cell or transgenic plant tissue, having greater resistance to organometal compounds than a corresponding parental plant, and/or capable of detoxifying organometal compounds, said method comprising the steps of:

• a) introducing the plant-expressible organomercurial lyase coding sequence into a plant cell or plant tissue to produce a transgenic plant cell or transgenic plant tissue;
• b) regenerating a transgenic plant from the transgenic plant cell or transgenic plant tissue of step (a);
• and
• c) growing the transgenic plant, plant cell or plant tissue, under conditions which allow the expression of said construct,
• whereby the expression of said organometal resistance protein has the result that resistance is expressed and or that the transgenic plant detoxifies at least one organometal compound.