Method to promote growth of a plant

Abstract

A concise method to promote growth of a plant useful for increase of food production. This invention provides a method to promote growth of a plant by administration of formic acid, an organic acid with a low molecular weight through avoidance of photo-oxidation damage. This invention also provides amino acid sequence of formate dehydrogenase and base sequence encoding the enzyme. The expression of the enzyme is induced by administration of formic acid and the enzyme is involved in metabolism, of formic acid and its salts. Furthermore, this invention provides a method to promote growth of a plant by administration of methanol through avoidance of photo-oxidation damage.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . A method to promote growth of a plant, the method comprising administration of an organic acid with a low molecular weight or its salt to a plant.  
     
     
         2 . The method according to  claim 1 , the method comprising administration of the organic acid or its salt to avoid photo-oxidation damage of the plant.  
     
     
         3 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein said organic acid or its salt is formic acid or a formate salt.  
     
     
         4 . The method according to  claim 3 , wherein said formate salt is selected from the group consisted of potassium formate, sodium formate and ammonium formate.  
     
     
         5 . The method according to  claim 3 , the method comprising administration of the organic acid or its salt to induce enzyme activity of formate dehydrogenase.  
     
     
         6 . A plant yield promoting agent, the agent comprising an organic acid with a low molecular weight or its salt.  
     
     
         7 . The plant yield promoting agent according to  claim 6 , wherein said organic acid is formic acid or a formate salt.  
     
     
         8 . The plant yield promoting agent according to  claim 7 , the agent containing formic acid or a formate salt at the concentration of 125 ppm.  
     
     
         9 . The plant yield promoting agent according to  claim 7 , wherein the agent contains formic acid or a formate salt and has a pH adjusted to 5.5-8.0.  
     
     
         10 . The plant yield promoting agent according to  claim 7 , wherein said formate salt is selected from the group consisted of potassium formate, sodium formate and ammonium formate.  
     
     
         11 . A peptide fragment derived from rice formate dehydrogenase having an amino acid sequence of following (a) or (b): 
 (a) an amino acid sequence referred to as amino acid numbers from 1 to 376 in sequence number 1 in a sequence list,    (b) an amino acid sequence in which a part of said amino acid sequence (a) is deleted or another amino acid sequence is added to said amino acid sequence (a) or a part of said amino acid sequence (a) is substituted with another amino acid sequence, the amino acid sequence (b) exhibiting enzyme activity to synthesize carbon dioxide using formic acid as substrate.    
     
     
         12 . A DNA fragment derived from rice formate dehydrogenase having a base sequence of following (c) or (d): 
 (c) a base sequence referred to as base numbers from 1 to 1450 in sequence number 2 in a sequence list,    (d) a base sequence hybridizes with said base sequence (c) under stringent condition, the base sequence (d) encoding a protein exhibiting enzyme activity to synthesize carbon dioxide using formic acid as substrate.    
     
     
         13 . A method to promote growth of a plant, the method comprising incorporation of DNA fragment according to  claim 12  into a plant and over-expression of formate dehydrogenase in the plant.  
     
     
         14 . A transgenic plant produced by incorporation of DNA fragment according to  claim 12  into a plant and over-expression of formate dehydrogenase in the plant.  
     
     
         15 . A method to promote growth of a plant, the method comprising administration of an alcohol with a low molecular weight to the plant.  
     
     
         16 . The method according to  claim 15 , wherein said alcohol is methanol.  
     
     
         17 . The method according to  claim 15 , the method comprising administration of the alcohol to avoid photo-oxidation damage of the plant.  
     
     
         18 . A plant yield promoting agent containing methanol.  
     
     
         19 . The plant yield promoting agent according to  claim 18 , the agent containing methanol at a concentration of 50 mM