Fertile transgenic corn plants

Abstract

Fertile transgenic Zea mays (corn) plants which stably express recombinant DNA which is heritable are provided wherein said DNA preferably comprises a recombinant gene which encodes a seed storage protein, so that the amino acid profile of the corn is improved.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application is a continuation in part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07 / 508,045, filed Apr. 11, 1990, which is in turn a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07 / 467,983, filed Jan. 22, 1990, both of which are incorporated by reference herein.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] This invention relates to fertile transgenic plants of the species Zea mays (oftentimes referred to herein as maize or corn). The invention further relates to producing fertile transgenic plants via particle bombardment and subsequent selection techniques. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] Genetic engineering of plants, which entails the isolation and manipulation of genetic material (usually in the form of DNA or RNA) and the subsequent introduction of that genetic material into a plant or plant cells, offers considerable promise to modern agriculture and plant breeding. Increased crop food values, higher yields, feed value, reduced produc...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0052] A preferred embodiment of the present invention is a fertile, transgenic corn plant that has been stably transformed with a recombinant, chimeric gene which is expressed as a seed storage protein, e.g., as the 10 kD zein protein, so that the level of at least one amino acid is elevated above that present in the parent, nontransformed lines. Expression of multiple copies of said gene or over-expression thereof, can substantially increase the whole kernel levels of certain amino acids, such as lysine, methionine, threonine and the like. As used herein, the term “substantially increased” means that the level of a given amino acid is at least 10-20% above that present in the corresponding plant or plant part which has not been transformed with said seed storage protein gene.

Problems solved by technology

However, some species have heretofore proven untransformable by any method.

Thus, previous to this discovery, no technology had been developed which would permit the production of stably transformed Zea mays plants in which the introduced recombinant DNA is transmitted through at least one complete sexual cycle.

In these papers, there is no molecular data confirming the introduction of the exogenous DNA into the corn cells.

To date, there have been no further reported successes with pollen and Aqrobacterium-mediated transfer techniques.

However, the cells used were not capable of regeneration into plants.

Thus, no protocols have been published describing the introduction of DNA by a bombardment technique into cultures of regenerable maize cells of any type.

However, there is no evidence that the DNA was transmitted through a complete sexual cycle, and no further results have been reported by this group.

Electroporation of corn protoplasts has been reported to result in transformed cells by M. E. Fromm et al., Nature, 319, 791 (1986) although these cells did not provide regenerated plants.

In addition, methods for the production of the cell line used by Rhodes et al. were not reproducible.

A further stumbling block to the successful production of fertile transgenic maize plants has been in selecting those few transformants in such a manner that neither the regeneration capacity (in the case of protoplasts or cell cultures) nor the fertility of the transformants are destroyed.

However, selection generally entails the use of some toxic agent, e.g., a herbicide or antibiotic, which may be detrimental to either the regenerability or the resultant plant fertility.

However, it has not been possible for the art worker to determine which maize tissues or cultures are appropriate recipients for exogenous DNA, e.g., contain a useful number of cells which are receptive to and which will stably-integrate the exogenous DNA, and at the same time be a part of the germline, i.e., part of the cell lineage that leads to the next plant generation.

The art is thus faced with a dilemma.

While certain transformation techniques have been proposed or reported to produce transformed maize cells and certain cells and tissues have been proposed to be potential recipients due to their ability to regenerate plants, the art has failed to find a combination of techniques which would successfully produce transformed maize plants able to transmit the introduced DNA through one complete sexual cycle.

Images