Transgenic plants with enhanced growth characteristics

• Main Authors: Anderson Penelope S, Knight Thomas J, Unkefer Pat J
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 09.01.2018
• Subjects: AGRICULTURE; ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; BEER; BIOCHEMISTRY; CHEMISTRY; COMPOSITIONS THEREOF; CULTURE MEDIA; ENZYMOLOGY; FISHING; FORESTRY; HUMAN NECESSITIES; HUNTING; METALLURGY; MICROBIOLOGY; MICROORGANISMS OR ENZYMES; MUTATION OR GENETIC ENGINEERING; NEW PLANTS OR PROCESSES FOR OBTAINING THEM; PLANT REPRODUCTION BY TISSUE CULTURE TECHNIQUES; PROPAGATING, PRESERVING OR MAINTAINING MICROORGANISMS; SPIRITS; TRAPPING; VINEGAR; WINE

The invention relates to transgenic plants exhibiting dramatically enhanced growth rates, greater seed and fruit/pod yields, earlier and more productive flowering, more efficient nitrogen utilization, increased tolerance to high salt conditions, and increased biomass yields. In one embodiment, transgenic plants engineered to over-express both glutamine phenylpyruvate transaminase (GPT) and glutamine synthetase (GS) are provided. The GPT+GS double-transgenic plants of the invention consistently exhibit enhanced growth characteristics, with T0 generation lines showing an increase in biomass over wild type counterparts of between 50% and 300%. Generations that result from sexual crosses and/or selfing typically perform even better, with some of the double-transgenic plants achieving an astounding four-fold biomass increase over wild type plants.