To optimize plant growth it is necessary to ensure proper nutrient uptake as well as monitor osmotic stress such as drought, temperature stress, and salinity. Current methods of detecting plant osmotic stress include visual assessment, sample testing, aerial imagery and radiometry. While visual assessment lacks the accuracy and resolution afforded by other methods, aerial imagery may be costlier; sample testing offers better accuracy and resolution but can be more labor- and cost-intensive. Radiometry strikes a better balance between volume and resolution, but its readings are sensitive to sunlight intensity, sun angle, cloud cover and interaction of sun angle with plant geometry; it needs to correct for these variations by taking the intensity of incoming light as well as the light reflected from the crop into account. Therefore there is a need for a different method that can improve the accuracy of the measurement of osmotic stress (more...)

In seeded plants, successful fruit set and development are dependent on pollination, which can be highly sensitive to environmental conditions. Generating fruit without a requirement for physical pollination (parthenocarpy) allows extensive improvements in fruit crop productivity and yield. Presently, it is known that adding gibberellic acid (GA) or auxin promotes parthenocarpy as well as eventual fruit size. However, this mode of intervention requires physical treatment of fruit crops with these chemicals and the mechanisms through which these hormones promote fruit development remains unknown. Creation of fruit bearing plants capable of undergoing parthenocarpy without a requirement for exogenous treatment with plant hormones would allow fruit growers to produce seedless varieties without the limitations of pollination or spraying crops with plant hormones. Alternatively, some varieties of citrus fruits are naturally seedless and can develop without pollination. Pollination in this case can be an impediment to production of the desired fruit and in this case generating plants less susceptible to pollination would be advantageous. (more...)

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed methods for improving fruit quality by introgressing genes encoding specific transcription factors into the plant. (more...)

The current invention involves the use of certain genes that control floral organ expression. By causing the over expression of these genes using transgenic technology, the process of floral petal abscission is blocked down stream of the regulatory point involving ethylene. This abscission is much sought after in the ornamental flower industry, as well as in oil seed production, and in many vegetable crops because chemical retardants and genetic manipulation of the ethylene pathway have proven only partially successful in preventing flower wilt and loss and in prolonging flowering duration and shelf life. (more...)

The differentiation of the major floral organs (petals, sepals, stamens, carpels) can be usefully manipulated by transgenic modification, as a result of discoveries involving the Arabidopsis SEPALLATA genes (see NATURE 405:200-203 (2000). By this approach, according to the well-established "ABC model" of flower organ identify, deletion of the 3 SEPALLATA genes produces flowers in which all 4 floral organs develop as sepals. Similarly, selective over-expression of appropriate SEPALLATA genes using constitutive promoters results in sepal replacement by petals. (more...)

Pamela Ronald and a team of researchers at the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) have engineered plants with inhibited expression of snl6, a cinnamoyl-CoA reductase-like (CCR-like) gene.  As a result, the JBEI plants have reduced lignin or phenolic compounds compared to wild type plants and yield an increase of up to 10 percent of sugar extracted.  The JBEI technology can be applied to a wide range of plants including rice, miscanthus, switchgrass, sugarcane, sugar beet, sorghum and corn, among others. In addition, the JBEI-engineered plants are developmentally normal. Until now, plants with decreased lignin content have exhibited defects such as reduced size or sturdiness that made them unsuitable biofuel feedstocks. Lignin significantly hinders the extraction of sugars from plant cells walls for saccharification, a key step in the production of biofuels from cellulosic biomass. The JBEI-engineered plants present less lignin or phenolics than control plants and lack the defects of other engineered species making them a superior biofuel feedstock. The Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI, www.jbei.org) is a scientific partnership led by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and including the Sandia National Laboratories, the University of California campuses of Berkeley and Davis, the Carnegie Institution for Science and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.  JBEI's primary scientific mission is to advance the development of the next generation of biofuels. (more...)

The flowering process consumes 25 to 35 percent of the energy of a typical plant. Thus, for trees used for lumber or pulp production, for example, it can be advantageous to suppress flowering in order increase the yield of wood. Suppression of flowering also can be a desirable trait to eliminate the production of allergic pollen, or to prevent pollen dissemination. (more...)

Inorganic nitrogen is a vital nutrient for plants. Soil nitrate provides as much as 90 percent of the nitrogen taken up by most plants and leads to a dramatic change in gene expression, which is critical to direct the productivity and survival of the plant. Consequently, nitrate is commonly provided by way of fertilizer to improve crop yield. However, many crop plants are inefficient in their ability to utilize the nitrogen. For example, corn and wheat typically only utilize 50 percent of the nitrogen applied to the soil and paddy rice may recoup as little as 30 percent. Nitrogen not used by crops may contribute to severe environmental problems, including pollution of ground water, run-off into nearby bodies of water, and release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Plants take up and assimilate nitrate in response to its availability in the soil and the demands of the plant, but with varying efficiency among species. Understanding and improving the ability of particular plant species to respond to and utilize nitrogen could therefore lead to increased crop productivity and decreased water and air pollution. (more...)

Normal 0 0 1 95 543 UC Berkeley 4 1 666 11.1282 0 0 0 This invention relates to genes and methods to control eukaryotic mechanisms responsible for both the genesis and maintenance of heritable phenotypic variation. Paramutations represent specific types of epigenetic alterations that can be stably inherited without altering the DNA sequence. Several genes are known to be involved in regulating the paramutant state in maize plants. It is currently thought that these allelic interactions cause structural alterations to the chromatin. This invention relates to the use of the rmr1 gene for reducing or mitigating gene silencing in a transgenic maize plant and also to reduce or mitigate inbreeding depression (more...)

Potassium is the major cationic nutrient required for the commercial cultivation of plants, and is a main component (potash) of crop fertilizers used worldwide. Further, Na+ competes for K+ transport in plants, and annual crop losses due to NaCl stress in soils contaminated by use of high-salinity irrigation water are over $200 million in California's Imperial Valley alone. Salt invasion of croplands worldwide is well-recognized as a growing threat to the worldwide food supply, with total annual production losses ranging from 30-60%. (more...)

In many agricultural seed products such as oilseed crops, grains, and legumes, as well as seed for planting, premature release of seeds prior to harvest results in serious losses. Prior to this invention, visual examination of the crops and other agricultural techniques such as determination of moisture content have been the primary means to indicate timing of the seed harvest. This invention is the first that uses genetic manipulation to achieve rational control of the natural regulatory mechanism of seed release. (more...)

Researchers from UC San Diego have found a key gene that plays a central role in regulating lignin accumulation within plant cells. Specifically, mutants of this gene produce excess lignins in "ectopic" positions, while transgene constructs incorporating a constitutive promotor nearly abolish lignin biosynthesis. Furthermore, this patented technology details how certain cells that would normally become lignified show a complete absence of lignin in double mutants for this and a related gene, suggesting that these two genes act redundantly to positively regulate lignin production. These results suggest that these genes can be used to regulate lignification of plant cells.Specifically, the technology provides a method of reducing lignification in a vascular plant by ectopically expressing a nucleic acid molecule encoding an AGL8-like gene product in the plant, whereby lignification is reduced due to ectopic expression of the nucleic acid molecule. (more...)

A major influence on the successful harvest of nearly every type of crop is adequate rainfall or irrigation. Particularly at critical phases in crop life cycle, drought conditions can delay, diminish or destroy productivity. Naturally drought resistant arid zone plants acutely control water metabolism through modification of stomatal opening. A simple and robust technology has now been developed which imparts exceptional drought resistance to any crop plant through manipulation of an NMDA-like receptor. This receptor plays a key role in mediating the hormonal regulation by Abscisic Acid (ABA) of stomatal opening and moisture retention during light and dark cycles. Inhibition or suppression of the receptor results in prolonged stomatal closing and water retention. (more...)

Genes have been introduced into maize plants that result in red, blue or purple pigmented kernel tissue while the hulls remain uncolored. This method can also be used in other cereal grains for permanent coloration. The invention would be highly useful as an indelible warning "marker" for transgenic cereal grains that are intended for use only as crop seeds, animal feed or other restricted or special uses. It could also provide for a variety of novel "naturally" colored cereal grain products including: popping corn, flour for preparation of bread or tortilla products, snack foods, and grain-based beverages. The invention has been reduced to practice in maize and in arabidopsis. Transgene-derived pigments are localized only in the endosperm tissues in high concentrations and there are no apparent untoward effects on the plant. (more...)

Oil seed crops, such as canola (Brassica), often break their seed-pods prematurely. This premature seed release can be a result of harvesting techniques or adverse weather conditions. Premature release can cause from 10 to 50 percent crop loss in canola, using current harvesting techniques. (more...)

Pathogen Resistance in Plants (more...)

Light-Independent Phytochrome Signaling (more...)

Cotton genes modified to enhance cotton yield and production (more...)

While ease of genetic manipulation has traditionally favored the use of bacteria for commercial-scale production of recombinant proteins, differences between prokaryotes and eukaryotes in their post-translational protein processing and the difficulties of recovering and purifying proteins from bacteria has spurred interest in using plants as an alternative. However, the high cost and low yield of recombinant proteins produced in plants, and, in some systems, the further difficulties with post-translational protein processing, contamination, and/or purification have slowed the progress of producing therapeutic and other beneficial proteins in plants. Researchers working at the University of California have developed a family of inventions that offer commercially-viable plant systems for the expression, secretion, and recovery of recombinant proteins. In contrast to previously-used plant systems, the UC systems employ alpha amylase promoters and signal peptide sequences that allow for more precise control of expression and much higher ultimate yields. These UC inventions include: Rice DNA sequences that can be used for metabolically-regulated or hormonally-regulated recombinant protein expression and secretion from germinating seeds; Additional rice DNA sequences that allow for regulated recombinant protein expression in plant cells in response to sugar depletion or deprivation; Rice signal peptide DNA sequences that can be used for secretion of recombinant proteins from monocotyledonous plants and cell cultures; and Sugar-beet DNA sequences that can be used for expression of recombinant proteins in dicotyledonous plants and cell cultures. Additional Patented Technologies from this Inventor UC Case No. 1998-287, "DNA Sequences Capable of Expressing Foreign Proteins and Metabolites in Dicotyledonous Plants and Cell Culture" U.S. Patent 7,045,681 issued on 16 May, 2006 UC Case No. 1997-229, "Sugar-Regulatory Sequences in Alpha-Amylase Genes" U.S. Patent 6,919,493 issued on 19 Jul, 2005 U.S. Patent 6,680,425 issued on 20 Jan, 2004 U.S. Patent 6,048,973 issued on 11 Apr, 2000 UC Case No. 2002-416, "Production of Mature Proteins in Plants" U.S. Patent 6,066,781 issued on 23 May, 2000 (more...)

Identification of an Established Chemical Production Pathway for a Compound, Gallic Acid, which can Contribute to the Reduction of Aflatoxin Contamination and the Improvement of the Synthesis of Hydrolysable Tannins (more...)

Storage of Microalgae (more...)

Phytochromes as Fluorescent Markers (more...)

University of California researchers have developed a new recombinant viral insecticide that kills host insects 50% more quickly than the wild type virus. Baculoviruses are a class of pathogens selective for insects. The viruses have recently been proven to be efficient vectors for the expression of foreign genes as well. This has led to the development of recombinant viruses which selectively kill their hosts by expressing the foreign gene. Previous attempts using inserted insect diuretic hormone and juvenile hormone esterase genes have met with some success, but showed little increase in potency over control viruses. Scientists at the University of California have now developed a new recombinant virus which expresses a neurotoxin that selectively targets and blocks the insect's sodium channels. This mode of action is similar to that of many widely used chemical insecticides. This new virus shows 25% greater efficacy over previously engineered viruses. These results suggest that such a recombinant insect-specific virus could be used as a safe and effective insecticide, and be of great commercial value to agriculture. (more...)

Gene and its Associated Peptide that Confers Resistance to Xanthomonas (more...)

Pathogen Resistance in Plants (more...)