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Consumer demand for seedless fruits is evidenced by the success of such varieties as seedless watermelons, navel oranges and clementines. However, as the creation of these seedless fruits relies on parthenocarpy, it has not always been feasible to create seedless fruits in other species. Parthenocarpic fruit can grow if the plant hormone auxin is produced early in ovule development.
UCSD investigators now have identified the essential plant genes responsible for regulating the production of auxin, thus affecting many aspects of plant growth and development such as formation of floral organs, fruit development and vascular tissues. This work for the first time unambiguously identifies where auxin is synthesized in plants, thereby allowing the control of auxin gradients, a key in developmental regulation.
In the absence of auxin biosynthesis, plants do not form normal amounts of vascular tissues and flowers. The bacterial auxin biosynthesis gene iaaM has been widely used to increase auxin levels in plants, but understanding the endogenous plant auxin biosynthetic pathway has been elusive.
Precise temporal and spatial expression of plant auxin genes can increase or decrease endogenous auxin levels in plants, and thus regulate development in a particular organ. Furthermore, controlling endogenous plant auxin genes may modulate developmental regulation in ways not achievable by the application of exogenous auxin or by the expression of iaaM.
The method can be used to regulate fruit opening, leaf shape, architecture of flowers, the development of plant reproductive organs and production of seeds through auxin biosynthesis. T his could be used to make male sterile plants or seedless fruits. It could also be used to regulate flower shape and the number of floral organs or in ornamental plants for which altered leaf shape or flower architecture may be desirable. This could also be used to make plants without flowers, or to affect plant stature.
Patent status: patent pending, worldwide rights available
Publication: Genes & Development, in press
Case No: SD2006-223
Inquiries To: invent@ucsd.edu
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