National Research Council of Canada

Odyssey Thera Inc.

Valorisation-recherche, LP

Normand Brisson

Stephen William Watson Michnick

Brian Boyle

Vincenzo De Luca

Wolfgang Gebhard Kurz

The invention relates to vectors comprising nucleic acid sequences encoding transcriptional repressor silencing element binding factor referred as 'SEBF', transformed vegetal host and plants comprising said vectors. The invention also relates to methods of altering resistance of a plant to pathogens with SEBF encoding nucleic acids.

Expression vectors comprising nucleic acids encoding SEBF proteins and uses thereof

Protein Fragment Complementation Assays (PCA) are done in plant material using enzyme fragment constructs, for example, dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) fragment constructs. Plant material is transformed with at least two different constructs that form different products capable of interacting to reconstitute enzymatic activity in the plant material. Detection of the activity can be done using a substrate for the enzyme in the culture medium which, when reacted with the enzyme, is converted to a detectable product. One embodiment uses a substrate that can be enzymatically converted to a detectable fluorescent product. An inducer such as rapamycin or salicylic acid can be added to the culture medium to increase the level of detectable product.

Mapping molecular interactions in plants with protein fragments complementation assays

In accordance with the present invention, there is provided an isolated and purified DNA fragment comprising a DNA sequence encoding a plant decarboxylase. Preferably, the DNA sequence encodes a plant tryptophan decarboxylase, more preferably from Catharanthus roseus. A 1747 bp cDNA clone was isolated by antibody screening of a cDNA expression library produced from poly A.sup.+ RNA found in developing seedlings of C. roseus. The invention also includes DNA sequences encoding a plant tryptophan decarboxylase which are synthetically produced to correspond substantially to the isolated and purified DNA sequence encoding the same enzyme. The nucleotide sequence of the synthetic DNA sequence is determined on the basis of codon degeneracy.

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Montreal, Canada

Normand Brisson