Geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate synthases

Abstract

This invention relates to an isolated nucleic acid fragment encoding a geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate synthase. The invention also relates to the construction of a chimeric gene encoding all or a portion of the geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate synthase, in sense or antisense orientation, wherein expression of the chimeric gene results in production of altered levels of the geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate synthase in a transformed host cell.

1 . An isolated polynucleotide comprising a nucleotide sequence selected from the group consisting of: 
 (a) a first nucleotide sequence encoding a polypeptide of at least 35 amino acids that has at least 80% identity based on the Clustal method of alignment when compared to a polypeptide of SEQ ID NO: 10;    (b) a second nucleotide sequence encoding a polypeptide of at least 50 amino acids that has at least 80% identity based on the Clustal method of alignment when compared to a polypeptide selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO:6 and SEQ ID NO:42;    (c) a third nucleotide sequence encoding a polypeptide of at least 50 amino acids that has at least 90% identity based on the Clustal method of alignment when compared to SEQ ID NO: 2;    (d) a fourth nucleotide sequence encoding a polypeptide of at least 100 amino acids that has at least 80% identity based on the Clustal method of alignment when compared to a polypeptide selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO:8, SEQ ID NO:12, SEQ ID NO:28, SEQ ID NO:30, SEQ ID NO:32, SEQ ID NO:34, SEQ ID NO:36, SEQ ID NO:40, and SEQ ID NO:44;    (e) a fifth nucleotide sequence encoding a polypeptide of at least 100 amino acids that has at least 85% identity based on the Clustal method of alignment when compared to a polypeptide selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO:4, SEQ ID NO:14, and SEQ ID NO:20;    (f) a sixth nucleotide sequence encoding a polypeptide of at least 100 amino acids that has at least 90% identity based on the Clustal method of alignment when compared to a polypeptide selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO:16 and SEQ ID NO:26;    (g) a seventh nucleotide sequence encoding a polypeptide of at least 150 amino acids that has at least 80% identity based on the Clustal method of alignment when compared to SEQ ID NO:24;    (h) an eighth nucleotide sequence encoding a polypeptide of at least 150 amino acids that has at least 90% identity based on the Clustal method of alignment when compared to SEQ ID NO:22;    (i) a ninth nucleotide sequence encoding a polypeptide of at least 200 amino acids that has at least 80% identity based on the Clustal method of alignment when compared to SEQ ID NO:38;    (j) a tenth nucleotide sequence encoding a first polypeptide of at least 200 amino acids that has at least 90% identity based on the Clustal method of alignment when compared to SEQ ID NO:18; and    (k)an eleventh nucleotide sequence comprising the complement of (a), (b), (c), (d), (e), (f), (g), (h), (i), or (j).    
     
     
         2 - 16 . (canceled)  
     
     
         17 . An isolated polynucleotide comprising: 
 (a) a nucleotide sequence encoding a polypeptide having geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate synthase activity, wherein the amino acid sequence of the polypeptide and the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:22 have at least 80% sequence identity, or    (b) the complement of the nucleotide sequence, wherein the complement and the nucleotide sequence contain the same number of nucleotides and are 100% complementary.    
     
     
         18 . The polynucleotide of  claim 17  wherein the sequence identity is at least 85%.  
     
     
         19 . The polynucleotide of  claim 17  wherein the sequence identity is at least 90%.  
     
     
         20 . The polynucleotide of  claim 17  wherein the sequence identity is at least 95%.  
     
     
         21 . The polynucleotide of  claim 17  wherein the polynucleotide encodes the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO:22.  
     
     
         22 . The polynucleotide of  claim 17  that comprises the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID No:21.  
     
     
         23 . A recombinant DNA construct comprising the polynucleotide of  claim 17  operably linked to at least one regulatory sequence.  
     
     
         24 . A cell comprising the polynucleotide of  claim 17 .  
     
     
         25 . The cell of  claim 17 , wherein the cell is selected from the group consisting of a yeast cell, a bacterial cell and a plant cell.  
     
     
         26 . A transgenic plant comprising the polynucleotide of  claim 17 .  
     
     
         27 . A virus comprising the polynucleotide of  claim 17 .  
     
     
         28 . A method for transforming a cell comprising introducing into a cell the polynucleotide of  claim 17 .  
     
     
         29 . A method for producing a transgenic plant comprising (a) transforming a plant cell with the polynucleotide of  claim 17  and (b) regenerating a transgenic plant from the transformed plant cell.  
     
     
         30 . A vector comprising the polynucleotide of  claim 17 .  
     
     
         31 . A seed comprising the recombinant DNA construct of  claim 23.