Description:
In
addition to their importance in human nutrition, plant seed oils are major
ingredients in nonfood products, such as soaps, detergents, lubricants,
cosmetics, paints, and biofuels. Demand for these vegetable oils has increased
steadily due to their versatility and recent use in the development of
alternatives to petroleum-based fuels. Transgenic methods that significantly
increase oil production without negatively affecting other structures and
functions of the plants would help address the increased demand for these oils.
Michigan
State University’s invention provides a method of increasing oil production in
plant tissues, especially seeds, by genetically engineering over-expression of
F-box genes in plants. Genetic constructs of the invention include a gene
promoter sequence and a sequence encoding a plant F-box protein that is
functionally linked to a seed-specific gene promoter to produce the effect.
Benefits
·
Increases seed oil content: Seed oil content may be
increased by up to 10 percent.
·
Stackable: May be used with other transgenic trait genes or
combined with other oil-production genes to attain additive or synergistic
effects on oil production.
·
Creates new high-calorie-density forage crops: Accumulation
of oil in plant leaves and stems increases the calorie content of forage crops.
This may improve weight gain and productivity of livestock that are fed the
improved forage.
·
New biofuel crops: Per-acre oil production is a major
performance attribute of biofuel crops. This technology may be used to create
plants that accumulate oil in their leaves and stems, which may greatly increase
the amount of oil produced per acre. Increased seed oil content is also
beneficial for biofuel production.
Applications
This
invention is useful for producing transgenic plants for the purpose of obtaining
optimal oil yields. The invention is applicable to crops used for producing oils
for food, biofuels and bioplastics feedstock, soaps, detergents, lubricants,
biofuels, cosmetics, and paints.
IP Protection
Status
Germany
and United Kingdom patents issues; U.S. and additional foreign patents
pending
