Syngenta Participations Ag

Erica J Pascal

Lyle Dean Crossland

Stacy Marie Harper

Adam Cockrell

Brian D Johnson

Jeffrey A Brown

Scott A Valentine

Chimeric insect hormone receptors and receptor cassettes are provided as well as methods for their use in regulating expression of target polypeptides in plants in the presence of appropriate chemical ligands. In particular, each receptor cassette encodes a receptor polypeptide that comprises a DNA binding domain, a hinge region, a ligand binding domain and an activation domain. According to one embodiment, the hinge and ligand binding domains are from two different insect ecdysone receptors. According to another embodiment, the receptor cassettes are chimeric in that one or more of the DNA binding or activation domains are obtained from a source heterologous with respect to the other domains present in the chimeric receptor cassette.

Control of gene expression in plants

The present invention provides a method for hybrid seed production comprising producing a conditional female sterile plant comprising a female-preferential promoter operably linked to a coding sequence which encodes an enzyme which catalyzes the conversion of a protoxin to a toxin, interplanting the conditional female sterile plant with a male sterile plant, applying the protoxin to the conditional female sterile plant, and producing hybrid seed. Viable seed formation is prevented on the conditional female sterile plant as a result of the conversion of the protoxin to the toxin in the female reproductive structures, and pollen production is prevented on the male sterile plant, thus allowing interplanting of the two parents of the hybrid cross in order to provide more efficient pollen transfer. Also provided are expression cassettes useful in the invention, plants transformed with the expression cassette, and novel female-preferential promoters.

Method of hybrid seed production using conditional female sterility

Female-preferential promoters isolated from maize and wheat

Growing community of inventors

San Diego, CA, United States of America

Erica J Pascal