Patent Abstract:
this invention relates to stevia plants characterized by exhibiting a high level of total glycosides , and a high ratio between rebaudioside a and stevioside . preferably the stevia plants comprise a level of total steviol glycoside of at least 14 %, or of about 14 . 4 % to about 18 . 8 %, and the ratio of rebaudioside a : stevioside is of at least 9 . 1 : 1 , or of about 9 . 3 : 1 to about 11 . 0 : 1 . this invention also discloses a method for producing stevia plants characterized in that the level of total steviol glycoside is at least of about 14 %, and the ratio of rebaudioside a : stevioside is of at least about 9 . 1 : 1 , comprising selecting at least two intermating genotypes of stevia each comprising a ratio of rebaudioside a : stevioside of at least about 9 : 1 : 1 , and a total steviol glycoside level of at least about 14 %; allowing said at least two intermating genotypes to cross pollinate to produce a seed ; collecting said seed ; and growing said stevia plant . also disclosed are seeds and plants obtained from stevia plants exhibiting high levels of total glycosides and high ratios between rebaudioside a to stevioside .

Detailed Description:
the present invention relates to a method of increasing the proportion of a desired steviol glycoside in stevia . more specifically , this invention relates to increasing the levels of rebaudioside a within stevia leaves . disclosed herein is the development of the components of a synthetic cultivar of stevia characterized in having economically significant levels of glycoside along with a high ratio of rebaudioside a to stevioside . also presented is the assembly of these components into a synthetic cultivar . as a result , this invention facilitates the low cost production of stevia leaves that are used as the raw material for high potency sweeteners with high levels of rebaudioside a . steviol glycosides are diterpenoid natural products derived from the intermediate , geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate ( ggpp ) that lead to diterpenes . the initial steps leading to the steviol glycosides from ggpp are identical to those in gibberellin biosynthesis . thus , ggpp is converted to ent - copalyl pyrophosphate ( cpp ) by cpp synthase and ent - kaurene is produced from cpp by ent - kaurene synthase . subsequent oxidation of this product at the c - 19 position to ent - kaurenoic acid is assumed to occur via the action of one or more p450 monooxygenases . at this point the pathways to the steviol glycosides and the gibberellins diverge . steviol is produced by further hydroxylation of ent - kaurenoic acid at the c - 13 position . the two oxygenated functional groups of steviol , the c - 19 carboxylate and the c - 13 alcohol , provide attachment points for the sugar side chains that determine the identity of the 8 different glycosides identified to date . these glycan side chains are comprised predominately of glucose residues but may also contain rhamnose ( fig1 ). on a dry weight basis , a typical profile for the four major glycosides found in the leaves of stevia would be 0 . 3 % dulcoside , 0 . 6 % rebaudioside c , 3 . 8 % rebaudioside a and 9 . 1 % stevioside . structures of these and other diterpenes and diterpene glucosides are presented in fig1 . a wide range of analytical techniques have been employed to assess the distribution and level of sweet diterpenoid glycosides in s . rebaudiana . these include thin layer chromatography ( metivier and viana 1979 ), over pressured layer chromatography ( fullas et al . 1989 ), droplet counter - current chromatography ( kinghom et al . 1982 ), and capillary electrophoresis ( liu and li 1995 ). stevioside levels have also been determined enzymatically ( mizukami et al . 1982 ) and by near infrared reflectance spectroscopy ( nishiyama et al . 1992 ) in plant strains producing mainly stevioside . the most common analytical method , however , has been high performance liquid chromatography ( ahmed and dobberstein 1982 a , b ). although separations have been achieved using silica gel , hydroxyapatite , hydrophilic , and size exclusion columns , amino bonded columns have been used most frequently for the analysis of the sweet glucosides . by “ leaf yield ” it is meant the dry weight of stevia leaves produced per unit area by a cultivar . by “ total glycosides ” it is meant the amount on a dry weight basis of the four major steviol ( ent - 13 - hydroxykaur - 16 - en - 19 - oic acid ) glycosides synthesized in stevia leaves . by economically significant total steviol glycoside levels , it is meant a total steviol glycoside levels of at least about 14 % ( on a dry weight basis ). the ratio of rebaudioside a to stevioside ( rebaudioside a : stevioside ) refers to a value obtained by dividing the percentage , by weight , of rebaudioside a into the percentage , by weight , of stevioside found in the leaves of a selection or cultivar . the value is unit - less and can range from 0 to about 11 . 0 . the term “ high ratio ” is used to refer to a ratio between rebaudioside a to stevioside of at least about 9 . 1 : 1 . a “ synthetic ” or “ synthetic cultivar ” refers to a stevia cultivar produced by intercrossing clones or sibbed lines obtained from a breeding population during cycles of recurrent selection . to be considered a synthetic , there typically is more than one line or clone in the synthetic cultivar , the lines or clones are typically tested for combining ability , the lines or clones are typically preserved for future synthesis of the synthetic cultivar , and the lines or clones are typically combined by random crossing . such synthetic cultivars are intended for use in crop production systems . a breeding population refers to a group of plants created by sexual crossing of selected parents for the purpose of selection of novel genotypes . a landrace cultivar is a one that is endemic to an area , consists of a mixture of morphological or chemotypes , but has unknown origins . it is known in the art that plants producing stevia leaves enriched in rebaudioside a are desirable compared with native stevia or landrace cultivars low in rebaudioside a . however , such plants have in the past been not amenable to seed propagation . this invention resolves the problem of low total glycoside concentration in cultivars enriched in rebaudioside a and demonstrates a method of producing leaves high in total glycosides and enriched in rebaudioside a from seeds . the invention as disclosed herein is directed to obtaining plants that can be produced from seed based transplants from a synthetic stevia cultivar and that exhibit economically significant total glycoside levels that are combined with high ratios of rebaudioside a to stevioside . in order to create parents for the synthetic cultivar , crosses were made among a number of single plants and a large number of progeny planted out to the field and selections were made among those progeny . leaves sampled from those selected plants were analyzed for glycoside concentration and composition using hplc and selections that were high in glycosides and with rebaudioside a to stevioside ratios exceeding 9 . 1 : 1 , and at least about 9 . 3 : 1 . these selections were intercrossed in greenhouses during the winter and seed collected from the maternal parents . at the same time the cuttings were taken from the plants so that they could be used to duplicate the synthetic as required . seed from the maternal parents was retained as half sibs families and a portion bulked . the half sib families , the bulked sample and the parental clones were evaluated in a replicated field trial . the plants so obtained are characterized in exhibiting high levels of total steviol glycosides and that are enriched in rebaudioside a . it is preferred that the cultivar seed be produced from at least two intermating genotypes . each parent having ratios of rebaudioside a : stevioside of at least about 9 . 1 : 1 . more specifically , the ratio may range from about 9 . 1 : 1 to about 11 . 0 : 1 . furthermore , each parent exhibits total steviol glycoside levels of at least about 14 %. more specifically , the total steviol glycoside level may range from about 14 . 4 to about 18 . 8 %. the production of seed of the cultivar is performed using standard technology known in the art . the dried leaves are produced by growing plants from the seed , harvesting the plants and extracting the sweetener from the leaves . the present invention will be further illustrated in the following examples . however , it is to be understood that these examples are for illustrative purposes only , and should not be used to limit the scope of the present invention in any manner . sixty plants from 12 half - sib families ( initial stock material obtained from southern crop protection and food research center , agriculture and agrifood canada , delhi research farm ) were planted into a field that had been treated with methyl isothiocyantae / chloropicrin soil fumigant and fertilized with 34 % n urea based fertilizer . transplants were started in the spring of the same year in 288 plug trays filled with soilless potting mix and grown in a greenhouse at the southern crop protection and food research center , delhi research farm ( 21 c , 16h daylength ) until they were approximately 8 weeks old . they were transplanted and placed in rows 6 meters long and spaced 60 cm apart with 20 cm between plants . plants were allowed to grow through the summer and received one supplemental irrigation through the season . twenty plants from each half - sib family were selected in the field and approximately 5 g of leaves sampled for analysis . sampling points were equally distributed through the plant and leaves were sampled from the lower , mid and top portions of the selected plants . leaves were then frozen at − 70c and then lyophillized . leaf tissue was placed in a lyophillizer for five days then ground with a wiley mill until the tissue passed through a 40 mesh screen . glycosides may be obtained from harvested leaves using a variety of methods known within the art , for example solvent extraction ( haga et al , jp 51 - 131900 ; 1976 ), solvent extraction along with a decolorizing agent ( ogawa , jp 55 - 111768 ; 1980 ), adsorption chromatography ( itagaki and ito , jp 54 - 041898 ; 1979 ), ion exchange chromatography ( matsushita and kitahara , jp 56 - 121454 ; 1981 ), selective precipitation of individual glycosides , or ultra - filtration ( tan and ueki , jp 06 - 007108 ; 1994 ). other methods may include nanofiltration , super critical fluid extraction etc , as would be evident to one of skill in the art . typical extraction processes involve aqueous or solvent extraction , followed by ion exchange , precipitation or coagulation with filtration , then crystallization and drying . three hundred milligrams of plant material were weighed into a 15 ml polypropylene centrifuge tube and 10 ml of 1 : 1 ( v / v ) acetonitrile - water were added to the tube . the tubes containing the samples were placed in an ultrasonic bath , set at maximum ultrasonification , for 15 minutes . the sample tubes were stirred occasionally and rotated in the bath to ensure uniform extraction of steviol glycosides . the sample tubes were then centrifuged for 15 minutes at 1500 rpm and then the supernatant transferred to a 10 ml volumetric flask and the volume made up with acetonitrile . the samples were then filtered through a 45 micron filter and a waters nh 2 sep - pak ® cartridge to remove contaminants and coeluting compounds . stevioside was used as the standard in all analyses . the response factor for stevioside was corrected and used for rebaudioside a , rebaudioside c and dulcoside . a waters carbohydrate cartridge column with a propylamine bonded phase , is typically used to analyze the diterpenoid glycosides in a large number of s . rebaudiana leaf samples . all analysis were performed on a hewlett - packard 1090 liquid chromatograph equipped with a three channel solvent delivery system and autosampler and a diode array detector ( 205 nm ) interfaced with a chem work station . separation of the four major steviol glycosides was with a 250 × 4 . 6 mm i . d . waters cartridge carbohydrate column , the guard column was a carbohydrate sentry column and the gradient water - acetonitrile . the flow rate was 1 . 5 ml / min and the solvents were water ( ph 5 . 25 ), acetonitrile and acetonitrile . the retention times were : 14 . 5 min . for dulcoside , 18 . 8 min . for stevioside , 20 . 4 min . for rebaudioside c and 23 . 5 min . for rebaudioside a ( see fig2 a - 2 d ). the steviol glycosides in the samples were identified by their retention times , there concentration calculated by an external standards method and they were reported on a dry weight basis . as a result of this screening process , four plants were selected that exhibited high ratios of rebaudioside a to stevioside of at least 9 . 1 : 1 , and that also comprised a level of total steviol glycosides of at least about 14 .%. these plants are denoted as a to d in table 1 . also shown in table 1 is a comparison of glycoside compositions of the plants a - d , the 13 half - sib families ( family ) and a landrace cultivar ( brazil ). brazil exhibits a moderate level of total glycoside , however , the rebaudioside a : stevioside ratio is low . similarly , high levels of total glycosides are detected in the half - sib family , yet the rebaudioside a : stevioside ratio is low . however , stevia plants a - d each exhibit economically significant total glycoside levels , and a high ratio between rebaudioside a to stevioside . plants a , b , c and d ( table 1 ) were isolated from the field in the fall , transplanted in 20 cm pots , and the existing vegetative growth trimmed back to the crown . these plants were placed on a raised bench in a greenhouse inside of a 1 . 3 m × 1 m insect cage screened with 10 mm mesh and allowed to regrow under 12 h daylength at an air temperature of 21 ° c . immediately following the appearance of the first open flowers a hive of bumble bees was introduced into the insect cage and the bees allowed to forage the flowers to promote intercrossing . seed was collected from each of the plants after three weeks and regularly for 8 weeks thereafter . the bulked seed was given the cultivar name ac blackbird . this seed was also deposited with the atcc , 10801 university blvd ., manassas va , 20110 - 2209 u . s . a ., with deposit number , 203340 on oct . 9 , 1998 . seed from each of the four selected plants and a bulk of that seed was planted one seed at a time in 288 cell plug trays , with a plug depth of 4 . 4 cm . cuttings from each of the parental clones were started two weeks later by taking shoot tip cuttings placing each cutting in a plug tray cell and watering regularly until roots were established . the trays were filled with soil - less potting mix , and in the case of the seed trays , were watered up to three times daily until the seed had germinated and the seedlings were established . following seedling and cutting establishment the trays were watered two times per day and fertilized every ten days with 20 - 20 - 20 until ready for the field . an experiment was designed to compare the glycoside composition of the synthetic cultivar ac blackbird to the four half - sib families and clonally propagated copies of the original selections . the experiment employed a randomized complete block design and had 11 treatments . each plot contained 8 plants . seedlings and transplants were started in 200 plug trays in early spring . the experiment was planted about seven weeks later and leaves were sampled for hplc analysis 5 months after the initial seedlings were started . production conditions were those used for the selection of the parental clones and outlined previously . the glycoside analysis method was that used for the parental clones and detailed previously . total steviol glycoside levels of least about 14 % were observed in all of the clonally propagated parents , in 3 of 4 half sibs and in the synthetic cultivar ac blackbird . a ratio of rebaudioside a to stevioside of at least about 9 . 1 : 1 was observed in three of four clonally propagated parents , two of three half sibs and in ac blackbird . the present invention has been described with regard to preferred embodiments . however , it will be obvious to persons skilled in the art that a number of variations and modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention as described herein . ahmed , m . s . and dobberstein , r . h . 1982a . stevia rebaudiana . ii . high - 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