Recombinant DNA Constructs for Crop Yield and Nitrogen Efficiency
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current agricultural practices face challenges in enhancing crop yields, nitrogen use efficiency, and water use efficiency, which are crucial for sustainable farming.
Innovation Solution
The development of recombinant DNA constructs that include heterologous promoters functional in plant cells, linked to specific polynucleotides or DNA encoding RNAs, aimed at suppressing target mRNA or protein expression. These constructs are designed to produce plants with enhanced traits such as increased yield, nitrogen use efficiency, and water use efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If current agricultural practices are used, then farming operations can be maintained with existing methods, but crop yields, nitrogen use efficiency, and water use efficiency remain suboptimal
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the genetic parameters of plants by introducing recombinant DNA constructs that modify gene expression patterns. This alters metabolic pathways to improve nitrogen use efficiency and crop yield, directly addressing the contradiction between maintaining current farming practices and achieving superior productivity
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses RNA interference mechanisms as intermediaries to suppress expression of target genes that limit nitrogen use efficiency. The recombinant DNA constructs produce RNA molecules that mediate gene silencing, enabling improved nitrogen utilization without changing overall farming operations
2Productivity
If current agricultural practices are used, then farming operations can be maintained with existing methods, but water use efficiency remains suboptimal
Solution Approach 1:
The patent modifies plant genetic parameters through recombinant DNA constructs to enhance water use efficiency. By altering gene expression patterns, the plants optimize their water utilization mechanisms, simultaneously improving crop yield and water efficiency without changing agricultural practices
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs RNA interference as an intermediary mechanism to suppress genes that negatively affect water use efficiency. The recombinant DNA constructs produce RNA molecules that mediate silencing of target genes, enabling improved water utilization while maintaining existing farming operations
3Productivity
If recombinant DNA constructs are introduced to enhance plant traits, then yield and efficiency are improved, but genetic modification complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the genetic modification task into segmented functional modules within the recombinant DNA constructs. Each construct contains specific promoter regions, coding sequences, and regulatory elements that can be independently designed and assembled, reducing overall complexity while achieving yield enhancement
Solution Approach 2:
The patent designs recombinant DNA constructs with universal components that can be applied across different plant species and target genes. The modular architecture allows the same basic construct design to serve multiple functions, simplifying the overall genetic modification process while maintaining yield improvement benefits
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The implementation of these recombinant DNA constructs in plants leads to significant enhancements in yield, nitrogen use efficiency, and water use efficiency, thereby addressing the limitations of existing agricultural practices.
Implementation Method 1
a heterologous promoter functional in a plant cell and operably linked to: a) a polynucleotide that comprises a nucleotide sequence
Implementation Method 2
b) a DNA encoding RNA for suppressing the expression of a target mRNA transcribed from a polynucleotide
Implementation Method 3
a suppression recombinant DNA construct that transcribes into a double-stranded RNA
Implementation Method 4
a miRNA precursor that produces a mature miRNA having a nucleic acid sequence with at least 95% identity or 100% complementarity to a fragment of at least 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 or 27 consecutive nucleotides
Data Source
AI summary
This disclosure provides recombinant DNA constructs and transgenic plants having enhanced traits such as increased yield, increased nitrogen use efficiency and enhanced drought tolerance; propagules, progeny and field crops of such transgenic plants; and methods of making and using such transgenic plants. This disclosure also provides methods of producing seed from such transgenic plants, growing such seed and selecting progeny plants with enhanced traits. Also disclosed are transgenic plants with altered phenotypes which are useful for screening and selecting transgenic events for the desired enhanced trait.