E.i. Dupont De Nemours and Company

Lynn Marie Abell

Stephen M Allen

Saverio Carl Falco

Anthony John Kinney

J Antoni Rafalski

William Dean Hitz

Catherine J Thorpe

John V Schloss

This invention relates to an isolated nucleic acid fragment encoding a plant enzyme that catalyze steps in the biosynthesis of lysine, threonine, methionine, cysteine and isoleucine from aspartate, the enzyme a member selected from the group consisting of: dihydrodipicolinate reductase, diaminopimelate epimerase, threonine synthase, threonine deaminase and S-adenosylmethionine synthetase. The invention also relates to the construction of a chimeric gene encoding all or a portion of the enzyme, in sense or antisense orientation, wherein expression of the chimeric gene results in production of altered levels of the enzyme in a transformed host cell.

Plant amino acid biosynthetic enzymes

A process for the detection of herbicides that inhibit acetolactate synthase (EC 4.1.3.18) by use of the enzyme, a suitable substrate (pyruvate, .alpha.-aceto-lactate, .alpha.-ketobutyrate, or .alpha.-aceto-.alpha.-hydroxybutyrate), and an oxygen-sensitive electrode is disclosed.

Use of the oxygenase activity of acetolactate synthase for herbicide

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Wilmington, DE, United States of America

Lynn Marie Abell