Medical University of South Carolina

Viki Bowman Vance

Lewis Howard Bowman

Allison Mallory

Compositions and methods for modulating nucleotide sequence expression, particularly for modulating gene expression in plants, are provided. The compositions comprise precursor RNA constructs for the expression of an RNA precursor. The precursor RNA construct comprises a promoter that is expressed in a plant cell driving the expression of a precursor RNA having a microRNA. The miRNA is complementary or partially complementary to a portion of a target gene or nucleotide sequence and function to modulate expression of the target sequence or gene. In this manner, the RNA precursor construct can be designed to modulate expression of any nucleotide sequence of interest, either an endogenous plant gene or alternatively a transgene. Transformed plants, tissues, cells and seeds are also provided.

Growing community of inventors

Columbia, SC, United States of America

Viki Bowman Vance