Transgenic Plants Enhancing Yield Under Stress

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current agricultural practices face challenges in enhancing crop yields and improving nitrogen and water use efficiencies, as existing methods often result in reduced productivity under stress conditions such as drought or nitrogen limitation.

Innovation Solution

Development of transgenic plants incorporating recombinant DNA molecules encoding specific polypeptides, which are introduced into plant cells to enhance traits like increased yield, nitrogen use efficiency, and water use efficiency, utilizing promoters and other regulatory elements for targeted expression.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Productivity

If conventional breeding and traditional agricultural practices are used, then crop yields can be maintained under optimal conditions, but productivity decreases under stress conditions such as drought or nitrogen limitation

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecrop yieldVSAvoidproductivity under stress conditions
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent changes the physiological parameters of plants by introducing transgenes that encode proteins involved in stress response pathways. This modifies how plants respond to environmental stresses, enabling them to maintain productivity under drought and nitrogen limitation conditions where conventional varieties would fail.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

Solution Approach 2:

The patent creates composite genetic systems by combining multiple transgenes with different functions (e.g., stress-responsive promoters with drought-tolerance genes, nitrogen-use efficiency genes). This composite approach allows plants to simultaneously acquire multiple stress tolerance traits that work synergistically to maintain productivity under various stress conditions.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #40Composite materials

2Productivity

If resources are applied to enhance crop yields, then productivity increases, but resource utilization efficiency decreases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecrop yieldVSAvoidresource utilization efficiency
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSLoss of energy

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces genes that enable plants to self-regulate resource acquisition and utilization. For example, enhanced root architecture genes allow plants to self-seeking nutrients and water more efficiently, while stress-responsive genes enable autonomous adaptation to resource-limited conditions, reducing the need for external resource inputs.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The patent modifies physiological parameters related to resource use efficiency, such as nitrogen assimilation rates, water use efficiency, and photosynthetic efficiency. These parameter changes allow plants to achieve higher yields with the same resource inputs, effectively converting resource consumption into productive output more efficiently.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

Data Source

PatentUS11268103B2Transgenic plants with enhanced traits
Publication Date: 2022.03.08 MONSANTO TECHNOLOGY LLC

AI summary

This disclosure provides transgenic plants having enhanced traits such as increased yield, enhanced 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 hybrid 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.