Patents Examined by Matthew Keogh
  • Patent number: 8722359
    Abstract: Provided herein are exemplary genes, constructs and methods for the formation of triacylglycerols (TAGs). The exemplary genes include a phosphatic acid phosphohydrolase (PA Hydrolase) gene, a diacylglycerol o-acyltransferase (DAGAT2A) gene, and a phospholipid:diacylglycerol acyltransferase (LROI) gene.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 21, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 13, 2014
    Assignee: Aurora Algae, Inc.
    Inventors: Oliver Kilian, Bertrand Vick
  • Patent number: 8716555
    Abstract: The present specification relates to the production of cotton plants and seeds and oil prepared therefrom having elevated levels of oleic and reduced levels of palmitic and linoleic acids. Furthermore, cottonseeds having low levels of cyclopropane and/or cyclopropene fatty acids and/or reduced levels of gossypol are described herein. The specification also describe FatB and CPA-FAS nucleotide and amino acid sequences derived from cotton facilitating, inter alia the direct modification of plant oil content and/or composition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 21, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 6, 2014
    Assignee: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
    Inventors: Qing Liu, Allan Graham Green, Surinder Pal Singh
  • Patent number: 8716556
    Abstract: A method for increasing cuticular wax biosynthesis of plant includes transforming a plant cell with the recombinant vector containing MYB96 (myb domain protein 96) gene from Arabidopsis thaliana. A method for producing a transgenic plant with increased cuticular wax biosynthesis includes transforming a plant cell with the recombinant vector containing the MYB96 gene, and regenerating the transformed plant cell into the transgenic plant. A plant and a seed with increased cuticular wax biosynthesis are produced by the method. A method for producing a biofuel using a cuticular wax includes separating and purifying a cuticular wax from the plant. A composition for increasing cuticular wax biosynthesis of plant includes the MYB96 gene.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 4, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 6, 2014
    Assignee: SNU R&DB Foundation
    Inventors: Chung Mo Park, Pil Joon Seo
  • Patent number: 8709811
    Abstract: The subject invention concerns polynucleotides encoding a plant 2-phenylethanol dehydrogenase enzyme. In one embodiment, the polynucleotide encodes a tomato 2-phenylethanol dehydrogenase. The subject invention also concerns polynucleotides encoding a plant phenylalanine decarboxylase enzyme. In one embodiment, the polynucleotide encodes a tomato phenylalanine decarboxylase. The subject invention also concerns 2-phenylethanol dehydrogenase polypeptides and phenylalanine decarboxylase polypeptides encoded by polynucleotides of the present invention. The subject invention also concerns methods for providing a plant with an increased flavor and aroma volatile. Plants can be transformed with one or more polynucleotide of the present invention. The subject invention also concerns these transformed plant cells, plant tissue, and plants and transgenic progeny thereof.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 1, 2004
    Date of Patent: April 29, 2014
    Assignee: University of Florida Research Foundation, Inc.
    Inventors: Harry J. Klee, Denise Tieman
  • Patent number: 8709766
    Abstract: The present disclosure is directed to novel polynucleotide sequences for use in Nannochloropsis gaditana. The novel polynucleotide sequences include control sequences and coding sequences. Also disclosed are novel gene expression constructs wherein N. gaditana promoters/control regions are operatively linked to N. gaditana or non-N. gaditana coding sequences. These novel polynucleotide sequences and expression constructs can be introduced into N. gaditana and can recombine into the N. gaditana genome. Expression from these polynucleotide sequences and expression constructs can enhance N. gaditana biomass and/or lipid biosynthesis. Also disclosed are methods for modifying N. gaditana, for example by stably transforming N. gaditana with nucleic acid sequences, growing the modified N. gaditana, and obtaining biomass and biofuels from the modified N. gaditana.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 17, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 29, 2014
    Assignee: Colorado School of Mines
    Inventors: Randor Radakovits, Robert Jinkerson, Matthew Posewitz
  • Patent number: 8704041
    Abstract: A variety of methods and compostions are provided, including methods and compositions for targeted modification of a specific target site in a cell or organism, methods for integrating polynucleotides of interest, methods to assess promoter activity, directly select transformed organisms, minimize or eliminate expression resulting from random integration into the genome of an organism, such as a plant, remove polynucleotides of interest, combine multiple transfer cassettes, invert or excise a polynucleotide, silence a gene, and identify and/or characterize transcriptional regulating regions. The methods involve the introduction of a cell proliferation factor and a double-strand break-inducing enzyme into an organism.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2010
    Date of Patent: April 22, 2014
    Assignee: Pioneer Hi Bred International Inc
    Inventors: William J. Gordon-Kamm, Keith S. Lowe, David J. Peterson, Christopher J. Scelonge, Grace M. St. Clair, Bing-Bing Wang
  • Patent number: 8697947
    Abstract: The present invention relates generally to the field of molecular biology and concerns a method for increasing various plant yield-related traits by modulating expression in a plant of a nucleic acid sequence encoding a yield increasing polypeptide selected from the group consisting of: an AT-hook motif nuclear localized 19/20 (AHL19/20), a GRP (Growth Regulating Protein) (wherein said GRP polypeptide is a metallothionein 2a (MT2a) polypeptide), an alanine aminotransferase (AAT)-like polypeptide, and an alanine aminotransferase (AAT) polypeptide.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 21, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 15, 2014
    Assignee: BASF Plant Science GmbH
    Inventors: Yves Hatzfeld, Valerie Frankard
  • Patent number: 8692070
    Abstract: The present invention relates to transgenic plants that have increased nitrogen use efficiency, stress tolerance, and/or alleviating a limitation such that yield is increased, or a combination of these and that have been transformed using a novel vector construct including a synthetic N-acetyl glutamate kinase (NAGK) gene that modulates nitrogen use in plants. The invention also includes the overexpression and enzymatic characterization of an arginine-insensitive NAGK isolated from a bacterial strain that improves stress tolerance and nitrogen uptake, metabolism or both. In various embodiments, the vector construct includes one or more nucleic acid sequences including SEQ ID NO: 1. The invention also relates to isolated vectors for transforming plants and to antibodies used for detecting transformed plants.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 1, 2010
    Date of Patent: April 8, 2014
    Assignee: Iowa Corn Promotion Board
    Inventors: James McLaren, Nicholas Duck, Brian Vande Berg, Philip Hammer, Laura Schouten
  • Patent number: 8692076
    Abstract: The present invention provides transgenic soybean event MON87769, and cells, seeds, and plants comprising DNA diagnostic for the soybean event. The invention also provides compositions comprising nucleotide sequences that are diagnostic for said soybean event in a sample, methods for detecting the presence of said soybean event nucleotide sequences in a sample, probes and primers for use in detecting nucleotide sequences that are diagnostic for the presence of said soybean event in a sample, growing the seeds of such soybean event into soybean plants, and breeding to produce soybean plants comprising DNA diagnostic for the soybean event.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 8, 2014
    Assignee: Monsanto Technology LLC
    Inventors: Byron Froman, Can Duong, Jennifer Listello
  • Patent number: 8658855
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to the isolation, purification, and characterization of a diacylglycerol acyltransferase 2 (DGAT2), and genes encoding DGAT2, from algae. DGAT2 can incorporate very long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in to triacylglycerol more efficiently than DGAT1. The disclosure concerns methods of regulating seed oil content, fatty acid synthesis and fatty acid composition using the DGAT2 gene and to tissues and plants transformed with the gene. The disclosure also relates to transgenic plants, plant tissues and plant seeds having a genome containing an introduced DNA sequence of the disclosure, and a method of producing such plants and plant seeds.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2008
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2014
    Assignees: National Research Council of Canada, Dow AgroSciences LLC
    Inventors: Jitao Zou, Jingyu Xu, Zhifu Zheng
  • Patent number: 8653328
    Abstract: Cytochrome b5 (Cb5) is a haem-binding protein located in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and the outer mitochondrial membranes of higher eukaryotes. In higher plants, animals, and fungi, the ER resident Cb5 has been shown to play a role in desaturation of acyl CoA fatty acids. Higher plants Cb5 isoforms from plants such as soybean or Arabidopsis are capable of modulating omega-3 desaturation. Co-expression of certain Cb5 isoforms with FAD3 in a host plant results in increased production of seed oil content as well as altered ratio between different fatty acids. It is also disclosed here that overexpression of Yarrowia ACL enzymes in the plastids of a host plant helps boost the synthesis of acetyl CoA, which in turn, may lead to increased synthesis of fatty acids and enhanced oil accumulation in the seeds.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2014
    Assignee: The Curators of the University of Missouri
    Inventors: Rajesh Kumar, Henry T. Nguyen
  • Patent number: 8637733
    Abstract: This invention is in the field of biotechnology, in particular, this pertains to polynucleotide sequences encoding membrane bound O-acyltransferase genes and the use of these acyltransferases for altering fatty acid profiles in oilseed plants. Methods for increasing elongation and desaturation conversion efficiencies are also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company
    Inventors: Howard Glenn Damude, Knut Meyer
  • Patent number: 8633012
    Abstract: Methods and compositions for the production of oil, fuels, oleochemicals, and other compounds in recombinant microorganisms are provided, including oil-bearing microorganisms and methods of low cost cultivation of such microorganisms. Microalgal cells containing exogenous genes encoding, for example, a lipase, a sucrose transporter, a sucrose invertase, a fructokinase, a polysaccharide-degrading enzyme, a keto acyl-ACP synthase enzyme, a fatty acyl-ACP thioesterase, a fatty acyl-CoA/aldehyde reductase, a fatty acyl-CoA reductase, a fatty aldehyde reductase, a fatty acid hydroxylase, a desaturase enzyme, a fatty aldehyde decarbonylase, and/or an acyl carrier protein are useful in manufacturing transportation fuels such as renewable diesel, biodiesel, and renewable jet fuel, as well as oleochemicals such as functional fluids, surfactants, soaps and lubricants.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 11, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 21, 2014
    Assignee: Solazyme, Inc.
    Inventors: Scott Franklin, Aravind Somanchi, Janice Wee, George Rudenko, Jeffrey L. Moseley, Walt Rakitsky, Xinhua Zhao, Riyaz Bhat
  • Patent number: 8592645
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to engineered zinc finger proteins that target genes in plants involved in fatty acid biosynthesis. Methods of using such zinc finger proteins in modulating gene expression, gene inactivation, and targeted gene modification are also provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 22, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2013
    Assignees: Dow AgroSciences LLC, Sangamo BioSciences, Inc.
    Inventors: Russell DeKelver, Manju Gupta, Jeffrey C. Miller, Stephen Novak, Joseph F. Petolino
  • Patent number: 8592649
    Abstract: The present invention provides methods and compositions relating to altering NT activity, nitrogen utilization efficiency and/or uptake in plants. The invention relates to a method for the production of plants with maintained or increased yield under low nitrogen fertility. The invention provides isolated nitrate transporter variant (NT variant) nucleic acids and their encoded proteins. The invention further provides recombinant expression cassettes, host cells, and transgenic plants. Plants transformed with nucleotide sequences encoding the NT variant enzyme show improved properties, for example, increased yield.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 20, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2013
    Assignee: Pioneer Hi Bred International Inc
    Inventors: Lu Liu, Hoa Giang, Dale F. Loussaert, Haiyin Wang
  • Patent number: 8569021
    Abstract: The subject invention provides novel microorganisms comprising polynucleotides and polypeptides encoding a methyltransferase. The subject invention provides novel methods for the production of biodiesel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2010
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2013
    Assignee: University of Tennessee Research Foundation
    Inventors: Feng Chen, Nan Zhao
  • Patent number: 8541650
    Abstract: Isolated polynucleotides and polypeptides and recombinant DNA constructs particularly useful for altering agronomic characteristics of plants under nitrogen limiting conditions, compositions (such as plants or seeds) comprising these recombinant DNA constructs, and methods utilizing these recombinant DNA constructs. The recombinant DNA construct comprises a polynucleotide operably linked to a promoter functional in a plant, wherein said polynucleotide encodes an LNT1 polypeptide.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 8, 2009
    Date of Patent: September 24, 2013
    Assignees: E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc.
    Inventors: Milo Aukerman, Stephen M. Allen, Dale Loussaert, Stanley Luck, Hajime Sakai, Scott V. Tingey
  • Patent number: 8461417
    Abstract: Reducing /yso-phosphatidylcholine acyltransferase (LPCAT) activity in a plant increases seed oil content and/or fatty acid levels in the plant. Increases in the level of unusual fatty acids 16:3, 18:3 and 20:1 c11 are particularly pronounced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 21, 2009
    Date of Patent: June 11, 2013
    Assignee: National Research Council of Canada
    Inventors: Jitao Zou, Qilin Chen, Wenyun Shen, Liping Wang
  • Patent number: 8445749
    Abstract: The invention provides nucleic acids, and variants and fragments thereof, obtained from strains of Bacillus thuringiensis encoding polypeptides having pesticidal activity against insect pests, including Lepidoptera. Particular embodiments of the invention provide isolated nucleic acids encoding pesticidal proteins, pesticidal compositions, DNA constructs, and transformed microorganisms and plants comprising a nucleic acid of the embodiments. These compositions find use in methods for controlling pests, especially plant pests.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 3, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 21, 2013
    Assignee: Pioneer Hi Bred International Inc
    Inventors: Andre R. Abad, Hua Dong, Sue B. Lo, Xiaomei Shi