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US 6,642,437 B1Granted
Production of proteins in plant seeds
AssigneeThe Regents of the University of California
InventorsPeggy G. Lemaux, Myeong-Je Cho, Bob B. Buchanan
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Abstract
Methods for producing proteins in plant seeds are disclosed. Expression of the protein is driven by a seed-specific promoter and the protein is preferably expressed as a fusion polypeptide that includes a signal peptide that causes the protein to accumulate in a subcellular compartment to protect the protein.
Claims5
A method for producing seeds containing a selected heterologous protein which is not a seed-storage protein, comprising the steps of:
- (a) stably transforming monocot plant cells with a chimeric gene having:
- (i) a transcriptional regulatory region from the gene of a maturation specific monocot storage protein selected from the group consisting of rice glutelins, rice oryzins, rice prolamines, barley hordeins, oat glutelins, and sorghum kafirins, millet pennisetins, and rye secalins,
- (ii) operably linked to said transcriptional regulatory region, a first DNA sequence encoding a monocot seed-specific N-terminal leader sequence capable of targeting a linked polypeptide to a protein storage body in monocot seeds, and
- (iii) a second DNA sequence encoding such selected non-seed-storage heterologous protein, and linked in translation frame with the first sequence, such that the first and second sequences encode a fusion protein composed of the selected heterologous non-seed-storage protein and an N-terminal leader sequence,
- (b) cultivating plants containing the transformed plant cells under seed-maturation conditions, wherein the expression of the non-seed storage heterologous protein is at least twice that observed with an equivalent chimeric gene lacking the second DNA sequence encoding a monocot seed-specific N-terminal leader sequence, and
- (c) harvesting seeds from the cultivated plants.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.