Alteration of oil traits in plants

Abstract

The preparation and use of nucleic acid fragments useful in altering the oil phenotype in plants are disclosed. Chimeric constructs incorporating such nucleic acid fragments and suitable regulatory sequences can be used to create transgenic plants having altered lipid profiles. Methods for altering the oil phenotype in plants using such nucleic acid fragments also are disclosed.

1 . An isolated nucleic acid sequence selected from the group consisting of: 
 a nucleic acid sequence encoding a polypeptide having at least 88% identity based on the Clustal method of alignment when compared to a polypeptide selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOs: 312, 316, 318, 328, 330, 332, 338, 342, 344, 348, 352, 354, 358, 362, 364, 479, 487, 489, or 491.    
     
     
         2 . A fully complementary sequence of the nucleic acid of  claim 1 .  
     
     
         3 . A chimeric construct comprising the isolated nucleic acid of  claim 1  operably linked to at least one regulatory sequence.  
     
     
         4 . A plant comprising in its genome the chimeric construct of  claim 3 .  
     
     
         5 . The plant of  claim 5  wherein said plant is selected from the group consisting of corn, soybean, wheat, rice, canola,  Brassica , sorghum, sunflower, and coconut.  
     
     
         6 . Seeds obtained from the plant of  claim 5 .  
     
     
         7 . A method for altering oil phenotype in a plant which comprises: 
 (a) transforming a plant with the chimeric construct of  claim 4;     (b) growing the transformed plant under conditions suitable for expression of the chimeric gene; and    (c) selecting those transformed plants whose oil phenotype has been altered compared to the oil phenotype of an untransformed plant.    
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7  wherein the plant is selected from the group consisting of corn, soybean, wheat, rice, canola,  Brassica , sorghum, sunflower, and coconut.