United States of America, As Represented by the Secretary of Agriculture

Los Alamos National Security, LLC

Eddie W Stover

Goutam Gupta

Guixia Hao

William R Belknap

Kent F McCue

James G Thomson

Roger L Thilmony

Two small proteins with anti-bacterial activity are generated and called optimized thionin and optimized pro-thionin. Optimized pro-thionin contains a signal sequence for intracellular trafficking of the protein and is cleaved off to yield optimized thionin. Genetically altered plants and their progeny expressing a polynucleotide encoding optimized pro-thionin or optimized thionin resist diseases caused by bacteria.

Optimized thionin protects plants against bacterial infections

Expression vectors and expression cassettes containing a tissue specific 5' transcription regulatory element, optionally linked to a translation regulatory element, optionally linked to an intron transcription regulatory element, operably linked to a heterologous polynucleotide encoding a protein or RNA of interest are described. The 5&#x2032; transcription regulatory elements control expression in root tissue cells, phloem tissue cells, or fruit and/or abscission zone tissue cells. These sequences are obtained fromplants. Methods of use of these expression vectors and expression cassettes are described, as well as genetically altered plants and parts thereof that contain these expression vectors and/or cassettes.

Citrus derived transcription and translation regulatory elements for tissue specific expression

The generation of a chimeric protein containing a first domain encoding either a pro-thionon or thionin, a second domain encoding D4E1 or pro-D4E1, and a third domain encoding a peptide linker located between the first domain and second domain is described. Either the first domain or the second domain is located at the amino terminal of the chimeric protein and the other domain (second domain or first domain, respectively) is located at the carboxyl terminal. The chimeric protein has antibacterial activity. Genetically altered plants and their progeny expressing a polynucleotide encoding the chimeric protein resist diseases caused by bacteria.

Thionin-D4E1 chimeric protein protects plants against bacterial infections

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Fort Pierce, FL, United States of America

Eddie W Stover