Suppression of Tla1 gene expression for improved solar conversion efficiency and photosynthetic productivity in plants and algae
AssigneeThe Regents of the University of California
InventorsAnastasios Melis, Mautusi Mitra
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Abstract
The invention provides method and compositions to minimize the chlorophyll antenna size of photosynthesis by decreasing TLA1 gene expression, thereby improving solar conversion efficiencies and photosynthetic productivity in plants, e.g., green microalgae, under bright sunlight conditions.
Claims23
A method of decreasing chlorophyll antenna size in a strain of green algae, the method comprising:
- inhibiting expression of a Tla1 nucleic acid in the green algae strain by introducing into the green algae strain an expression cassette comprising a promoter operably linked to a polynucleotide, or a complement thereof, wherein the polynucleotide is at least 90% identical to at least 200 contiguous nucleotides of a nucleic acid sequence encoding SEQ ID NO:2;
- or comprises at least 20 contiguous nucleotides of SEQ ID NO:1 or SEQ ID NO:3;
- and
- selecting algae with decreased chlorophyll antenna size compared to green algae in which the expression cassette has not been introduced.
A strain of green algae comprising an expression cassette comprising a polynucleotide, or a complement thereof, that is at least 90% percent identical to at least 200 contiguous nucleotides of a sequence encoding SEQ ID NO:2;
- or comprises at least 20 contiguous nucleotides to SEQ ID NO:1 or SEQ ID NO:3, or the complement thereof.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.