Patent ID: 8088971

Claim:
A recombinant DNA expression construct comprising a) at least one promoter sequence functioning in a plant or plant cell; b) at least one intron comprising the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 or a functional equivalent thereof; and c) at least one nucleic acid sequence, wherein the at least one promoter sequence and the at least one intron or functional equivalent thereof are functionally linked to the at least one nucleic acid sequence, and wherein said intron is heterologous to said nucleic acid sequence and/or to said promoter sequence, and wherein the functional equivalent thereof comprises a sequence having at least 80% sequence identity to the full-length sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 and comprises i) an intron length shorter than 1000 base pairs, and ii) a 5′ splice site comprising the dinucleotide sequence 5′-GT-3′ (SEQ ID NO: 78), and iii) a 3′ splice site comprising the trinucleotide sequence 5′-CAG-3′ (SEQ ID NO: 79), and iv) a branch point resembling the consensus sequence 5′-CURAY-3′ (SEQ ID NO: 75) upstream of the 3′ splice site.