Elevation of oil levels in plants

Abstract

This present invention provides a method for increasing oil levels in corn kernel tissue by expression of an HOI001 GBSS allele. The present invention also provides isolated nucleic acid molecules encoding a HOI001 GBSS polypeptide.

1 . A substantially purified nucleic acid molecule selected from the group consisting of: 
 a) a nucleic acid molecule comprising SEQ ID NO: 1 or the complement thereof;    b) a nucleic acid molecule comprising SEQ ID NO: 11 or the complement thereof; and    c) a nucleic acid molecule which encodes a polypeptide having at least about 94% amino acid identity with SEQ ID NO: 3.    
     
     
         2 . An expression cassette comprising a nucleic acid molecule of  claim 1 , wherein said nucleic acid molecule is operably linked to a promoter, which is functional in a plant cell.  
     
     
         3 . A plant cell comprising the expression cassette of  claim 2 .  
     
     
         4 . A plant comprising the plant cell of  claim 3 .  
     
     
         5 . A plant according to  claim 4 , wherein the plant is a monocot.  
     
     
         6 . A plant according to  claim 5 , wherein the monocot plant is corn.  
     
     
         7 . Seeds obtained from a corn plant, wherein the seeds comprise the nucleic acid molecule of  claim 1 .  
     
     
         8 . An animal feed obtained from the seeds of  claim 7 .  
     
     
         9 . A plant having stably incorporated into it's genome a nucleic acid molecule selected from the group consisting of: 
 a) a nucleic acid molecule comprising SEQ ID NO: 1 or the complement thereof;    b) a nucleic acid molecule comprising SEQ ID NO: 11 or the complement thereof; and    c) a nucleic acid molecule which encodes a polypeptide having at least about 94% amino acid identity with SEQ ID NO: 3.    
     
     
         10 . A plant according to  claim 9 , wherein the plant is a monocot.  
     
     
         11 . The monocot plant of  claim 10 , wherein the plant is corn.  
     
     
         12 . Seeds obtained from the plant of  claim 11 .  
     
     
         13 . Oil obtained from the seeds of  claim 12 .  
     
     
         14 . An animal feed obtained from the seeds of  claim 12 .  
     
     
         15 . A method of producing a plant having increased levels of oil production, wherein the method comprises: 
 (a) transforming a plant with an expression cassette comprising a nucleic acid molecule selected from the group consisting of: 
 i) a nucleic acid molecule comprising SEQ ID NO: 1 or the complement thereof;  
 ii) a nucleic acid molecule comprising SEQ ID NO: 11 or the complement thereof; and  
 iii) a nucleic acid molecule which encodes a polypeptide having at least about 94% amino acid identity with SEQ ID NO: 3;  
 wherein said expression cassette further comprises a promoter region functional in a plant cell, operably linked to said nucleic acid molecule; and  
   (b) growing the transformed plant.    
     
     
         16 . The method  claim 15 , wherein the plant is a monocot.  
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the monocot plant is corn.  
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein the promoter region is an endosperm promoter region.  
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein the promoter region is the Z27 promoter.  
     
     
         20 . A method of selecting corn germplasm, comprising the steps of: 
 a) identifying at least one polymorphism unique to the HOI001 GBSS sequence represented in SEQ ID NO: 1;    b) selecting a fragment of SEQ ID NO: 1 containing at least part of one of the identified polymorphisms to be used as a molecular marker;    c) assaying corn plants for the presence of the marker; and    d) selecting plants that contain the marker.