Claims for Patent: 7,462,762

Summary for Patent: 7,462,762

Title:	Method for producing modified carbon-based metabolism C.sub.4 plants by overexpression of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase
Abstract:	The invention relates to a method for producing a C.sub.4-type plant having a modified carbon metabolism, comprising the following steps: an expression cassette, which comprises a nucleotide sequence that codes for a phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC), is introduced into at least one cell of plant C.sub.4; the cell thus transformed is cultivated in such a way as to regenerate a C.sub.4 plant containing said expression cassette in the genome thereof.
Inventor(s):	Vidal; Jean (Gometz le Chatel, FR), Jeanneau; Matthieu (Saint Valentin, FR), Perez; Pascual (Chanonat, FR), Gerentes; Denise (Le Crest, FR)
Assignee:	Biogemma (Paris, FR) Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (Paris, FR)
Application Number:	10/473,966
Patent Claims:	1. A method for producing a C.sub.4-type transgenic plant or part of a plant having an improved tolerance to water stress as compared to a non-transgenic plant, comprising: (a) transforming at least a C.sub.4-type plant's cell by introducing into said plant cell's genome an expression cassette comprising a nucleotide sequence encoding a C.sub.4-type phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) protein derived from sorghum, wherein said nucleotide sequence encoding a C4-type PEPC comprises SEQ ID NO: 1 or a homologous sequence thereof having at least 85% identity of the sequence SEQ ID NO: 1 and having PEPC enzymatic activity; (b) culturing said transformed cell to regenerate said plant or part of a plant. 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying and selecting the transformed cells capable of regenerating plants having an improved tolerance to water stress compared with a non-transformed plant. 3. The method of claim 1, wherein said C.sub.4-type PEPC protein is overexpressed in said transformed, regenerated plant or part of a plant. 4. The method of claim 1, wherein said nucleotide sequence encodes a C.sub.4-type PEPC comprising SEQ ID NO: 1. 5. The method of claim 1, wherein said transformed cell is also transformed with one or more nucleic acids chosen from: (a) a nucleic acid encoding a protein component for modulation of the chain of transduction and phosphorylation of said PEPC or (b) a nucleic acid encoding another protein of the C.sub.4 cycle. 6. The method of claim 1, wherein said expression cassette comprises a promoter which allows constitutive or targeted expression or induced expression under conditions of water stress of said nucleotide sequence encoding a C.sub.4-type PEPC. 7. The method of claim 6, wherein said plant or part of a plant, exhibits an increase in expression of said C.sub.4-type PEPC protein compared with a non-transformed plant. 8. The method of claim 7, wherein said expression cassette is stably integrated into said plant cell's genome. 9. The method of claim 1, wherein said nucleic acid encoding a C.sub.4-type PEPC protein further increases: (a) fruit maturation; (b) seed filling; and/or (c) modified grain filling. 10. The method of claim 5, wherein (b) is pyruvate, phosphate dikinase (PPDK). 11. The method of claim 6, wherein said promoter is the rice actin promoter-intron (RAP-RAI), wheat high molecular weight glutenin (HMWG) promoter, or PEPC promoter. 12. A plant or part of a plant obtained by the method of claim 1. 13. A plant or part of a plant obtained by the method of claim 5. 14. The method of claim 1, wherein said C.sub.4-type plants are field crop plants, vegetables, or flowers. 15. The method of claim 14, wherein said field crop plants are maize or sorghum. 16. The method of claim 1, wherein said C.sub.4-type transgenic plant or part of a plant has an increased (a) fruit maturation; (b) seed filling; and/or (c) modified grain filling. 17. A method for obtaining a hybrid transgenic plant comprising: (a) producing a C.sub.4-type transgenic plant or a plant having an improved tolerance to water stress as compared to a non-transgenic plant by the method according to claim 1; and (b) crossing the plant obtained in step (a) with a different plant. 18. A transgenic C.sub.4-type plant or part of a transgenic C.sub.4-type plant according to claim 12, wherein: the plant is maize, and comprises into its genome an expression cassette comprising a nucleotide sequence encoding a C.sub.4-type PEPC derived from sorghum, said nucleotide sequence comprising SEQ ID NO: 1 or a sequence at least 85% identical to SEQ ID NO: 1 and having PEPC enzymatic activity, and said C.sub.4-type plant has improved tolerance to water stress compared to a non-transgenic plant. 19. The method of claim 11, wherein said PEPC promoter comprises SEQ ID NO: 2.

Details for Patent 7,462,762

Applicant	Tradename	Biologic Ingredient	Dosage Form	BLA	Approval Date	Patent No.	Expiredate
Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp.	INTRON A	interferon alfa-2b	For Injection	103132	06/04/1986		2021-04-04
Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp.	INTRON A	interferon alfa-2b	For Injection	103132			2021-04-04
Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp.	INTRON A	interferon alfa-2b	Injection	103132			2021-04-04