Medical University of South Carolina

Laszlo Marton

Mihaly Czako

William O Dawson

Yung-Pin Chen

Vicki Bowman Vance

Gail J Pruss

James Carrington

A method is provided for generating sustained totipotent tissue cultures of a plant of the Class Monocotyledonae, and for micropropagating such plant in vitro, wherein immature inflorescence are cultivated to produce totipotent tissue which is suitable for sustained maintenance and propagation. Greening of the tissue can be induced under light and the multishoot culture can multiply by microtillering. Foreign genes can be introduced into the tissue if desired, and the transgenic plants can be used in phytoremediation technologies in the field and in phytoreactors independently of seasons.

Sustained totipotent culture of selected monocot genera

It has been discovered that an enzyme produced by Spartina alterniflora degrades halogenated organics. The present invention is therefore the use of the enzyme produced by genes of this plant to remediate soils contaminated with halogenated organics such as TCE, and to genetically alter other plants to produce this enzyme using the gene that produces plant dehaloperoxidase.

Method for decomposing toxic organic pollutants

The present invention provides a method for enhancing the expression of genes in plants by supplying a virally encoded booster sequence comprising the 5' proximal region of the potyvirus genome to the plant. The booster sequence enhances the expression of foreign genes or endogenous plant genes in plants by employing any known methodology of expressing introduced genes in plants. The booster sequence may be used to enhance expression of any gene, including foreign genes or endogenous plant genes, introduced by means of stable transformation into the genome of the plant or introduced by expression from a plant viral expression vector.

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Chapin, SC, United States of America

Laszlo Marton