The uridine diphosphate glucose dehydrogenase gene and its role in altering plant growth and plant characteristics

摘要

This invention relates to plant derived nucleic acids encoding a uridine diphosphate glucose dehydrogenase, fragments thereof, vectors and host cells comprising such nucleic acids, and antisense molecules to such nucleic acids. The present invention also relates to methods of altering cell wall composition by the introduction of UDP glucose dehydrogenase encoding nucleic acids into plant cells. The nucleic acids can be used to generate transgenic plants which have increased leaf elongation rate and can be exploited so as to manipulate the growth of plants.