Zeneca Limited

Imperial Chemical Industries Limited

Monsanto Company

Philip Anthony Fentem

Peter Lewis Keeling

David Byrom

Wolfgang Walter Schuch

George William Singletary

Colin Roger Bird

Ian George Bridges

Simon W Bright

Simon William Jonathan Bright

Antoni Ryszard Slabas

Keiran Elborough

Dianne Chase

Andrew White

George Singletary

Mark Olive

A plant which produces polyhydroxy-alkanoate polymer has a recombinant genome which contains one or more than one of the genes specifying enzymes critical to the polyhydroxyalkanoate biosynthetic pathway which occurs in certain micro-organistas such as,which naturally produce same. The plant species is preferably an oil-producing plant.

Production of polyhydroxyalkanoate in plants

Plants, particularly cereal plants, which have improved ability to synthesise starch at elevated or lowered temperatures and/or to synthesise starch with an altered fine structure are produced by inserting into the genome of the plant (i) a gene(s) encoding a form of an enzyme of the starch or glycogen biosynthetic pathway, particularly soluble starch synthase and/or branching enzyme and/or glycogen synthase, which display an activity which continues to increase over a temperature range over which the activity would normally be expected to decrease, and/or (ii) a gene(s) encoding sense and anti-sense constructs of enzymes of the starch biosynthetic pathway, particularly soluble starch synthase and/or branching enzyme and/or glycogen synthase, which alters the natural ratios of expression of the said enzymes or inserts enzymes with special structural characteristics which alter the natural branching pattern in starch.

Plants and processes for obtaining them

.beta.-Ketoacyl ACP reductase genes from Brassica napus

Plants, particularly cereal plants, which have altered ability to synthesise starch are produced by inserting into the genome of the plant a gene encoding an enzyme of the starch biosynthetic pathway such that capacity to produce starch is improved or reduced. The gene encoding the enzyme ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase has been isolated from wheat leaf and wheat endosperm tissue. The enzyme is essential to the biosynthesis of starch in plants. Addition of extra copies of the gene to a plant by transformation enhances starch production, increasing the food value of the crop. Conversely, insertion of a gene encoding mRNA antisense to the mRNA encoded by the endogenous ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase gene will reduce starch production. cDNA sequences are provided which may be used to identify homologous sequences in other tissue and in other plants. The ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase gene promoter may be used in the genetic manipulation of plants to alter their starch-synthesising ability.

Plants with altered ability to synthesize starch and process for

A plant which produces polyhydroxyalkanoate polymer has a recombinant genome which contains one or more than one of the genes specifying enzymes critical to the polyhydroxyalkanoate biosynthetic pathway which occurs in certain micro-organisms such as Alcaligenes eutrophus which naturally produce same. The plant species is preferably an oil-producing plant.

Production of polyhydroxy alkanoate in plants

Growing community of inventors

Berkshire, United Kingdom

Philip Anthony Fentem