Abstract: The present invention provides nucleic acid and amino acid sequences of acetyl CoA synthetase (ACS), plastidic pyruvate dehydrogenase (pPDH), ATP citrate lyase (ACL), Arabidopsis pyruvate decarboxylase (PDC), and Arabidopsis aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), specifically ALDH-2 and ALDH-4. The present invention also provides a recombinant vector comprising a nucleic acid sequence encoding one of the aforementioned enzymes, an antisense sequence thereto or a ribozyme therefor, a cell transformed with such a vector, antibodies to the enzymes, a plant cell, a plant tissue, a plant organ or a plant in which the level of an enzyme has been altered, and a method of producing such a plant cell, plant tissue, plant organ or plant. Desirably, alteration of the level of enzyme results in an alteration of the level of acetyl CoA in the plant cell, plant tissue, plant organ or plant.

Abstract: Compositions and methods for identifying nucleotide fragments that contain an open reading frame are provided. Compositions comprise a nucleotide sequence that encodes, in each of the three possible reading frames, an ATG start codon and a histidine tag, and vectors comprising such a nucleotide sequence. The vectors may be provided with cloning sites for insertion of nucleotide sequences of interest 5? or 3? to the 3-frame His-tag DNA sequence. Vectors also are provided with cloning sites for inserting nucleotide sequences of interest 3? of the ATG start codon and 5? of the 3-frame His-tag DNA sequence.