Patent ID: 7541516

Claim:
A method of producing a high oil phenotype in a plant, said method comprising: a) introducing into progenitor cells of the plant a plant transformation vector comprising a heterologous constitutive promoter operatively linked to a nucleotide sequence that encodes a HIO32.2 polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:2, or having at least 95% sequence identity to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:2, to produce transformed cells overexpressing the HIO32.2 polypeptide; b) growing the transformed progenitor cells to produce a transgenic plant; and c) identifying a high oil phenotype in said transgenic plant by measuring oil content of the transgenic plant and selecting a transgenic plant that possesses a higher oil content relative to a plant of the same species that does not comprise the plant transformation vector.