Transgenic plants of altered morphology comprising a gene construct coding for a cell wall modulation protein operably linked to a secretion signal peptide

摘要

Genetically engineered plants are provided which contain a nucleic acid construct comprising a nucleic acid encoding a cell wall modulation protein or polypeptide operably liked to a nucleic acid encoding a secretion signal peptide (preferably the cel1 secretion signal peptide from Arabidopsis thaliana). The transgenic plants expressing the gene construct have an altered structure or morphology associated with, for example, altered biomass, growth, yield, greater or less resistance to biodegradation, more or less digestible to ruminants, altered cellulose content, larger leaves/normal hypocotyls or smaller leaves/longer hypocotyls, compared to a non-transgenic plant of the same species. The cell wall modulation protein or polypeptide can be any cellulose binding protein, a polysaccharide binding domain or a cell wall modifying protein or enzyme such as endo-xyloglucan transferase, xyloglucan endotransglycosylase, expansin, cellulose synthase and polysaccharidase, or endo-1,4- beta-glucanase of Arabidopsis thaliana.