DNA STRANDS ENCODING GLYCEROL-3-PHOSPHATE ACYLTRANSFERASE

摘要

Techniques relating to DNA strands having a bioengineering productivity of glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase (ATase) which is useful in the conversion of a membrane lipid PG into one having improved cold resistance, more particularly, a chimeric gene wherein the central region (about 1/3; cleaved with Kpn I and Hind III) of glycerol-3-phosphate ATase cDNA originating in pumpkin has been replaced by the corresponding region of spinach ATase cDNA; a chimeric gene wherein the central region (about 1/6; cleaved with Hind III Sac I) of cDNA originating in pumpkin has been replaced by cDNA originating in spinach; or a chimeric gene wherein the 3'-terminal region (about 1/3; cleaved with Kpn I and Eco RI) of cDNA of ATase originating in spinach has been replaced by the corresponding region of cDNA of pumpkin ATase. Such chimeric genes can express a chimeric ATase having an enhanced substrate-specificity for unsaturated fatty acids. When this DNA strand is transduced into a low-temperature-sensitive plant and expressed therein, an increased cold resistance can be imparted to the plant compared with the case with the use of an ATase gene originating in a known cold-resistant plant.