Plant Diacylglycerol Acyltransferases

Abstract

This invention relates to an isolated nucleic acid fragment encoding a diacylglycerol acyltransferase. The invention also relates to the construction of a chimeric gene encoding all or a portion of the diacylglycerol acyltransferase, in sense or antisense orientation, wherein expression of the chimeric gene results in production of altered levels of the diacylglycerol acyltransferase in a transformed host cell.

1 . An isolated polynucleotide comprising a nucleotide sequence encoding a first polypeptide of at least 50 amino acids that has at least 60% identity based on the Clustal method of alignment when compared to a polypeptide selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOs:4, 6, 8, 10, 14, 20 and 22,
 or an isolated polynucleotide comprising the complement of the nucleotide sequence.   
     
     
         2 - 25 . (canceled) 
     
     
         26 . An isolated polynucleotide comprising:
 (a) a nucleotide sequence encoding a polypeptide having diacylglycerol acyltransferase activity, wherein the amino acid sequence of the polypeptide and the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:22 have at least 95% sequence identity, based on the Clustal alignment method with pairwise alignment default parameters of KTUPLE=1, GAP PENALTY=3, WINDOW=5 and DIAGONALS SAVED=5, or   (b) the full-length complement of the nucleotide sequence of (a).   
     
     
         30 . The polynucleotide of  claim 26 , wherein the nucleotide sequence comprises the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO:21. 
     
     
         31 . The polynucleotide of  claim 26 , wherein the amino acid sequence of the polypeptide comprises the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:22. 
     
     
         32 . A vector comprising the polynucleotide of  claim 26 . 
     
     
         33 . A recombinant DNA construct comprising the polynucleotide of  claim 26  operably linked to at least one regulatory sequence. 
     
     
         34 . A method for transforming a cell comprising transforming a cell with the polynucleotide of  claim 26 . 
     
     
         35 . A cell comprising the recombinant DNA construct of  claim 33 , wherein the cell is selected from the group consisting of a bacterial cell, a yeast cell and a plant cell. 
     
     
         36 . A virus comprising the recombinant DNA construct of  claim 33 . 
     
     
         37 . A method for producing a transgenic plant comprising transforming a plant cell with the polynucleotide of  claim 26  and regenerating a transgenic plant from the transformed plant cell. 
     
     
         38 . A plant comprising the recombinant DNA construct of  claim 33 . 
     
     
         39 . A seed comprising the recombinant DNA construct of  claim 33 . 
     
     
         40 . A method for isolating a polypeptide encoded by the recombinant DNA construct of  claim 33  comprising:
 (a) transforming a cell with the recombinant DNA construct of  claim 33 ;   (b) growing the transformed cell of step (a) under conditions suitable for expression of the recombinant DNA construct; and   (c) isolating the polypeptide from the transformed cell of step (b).