Patent ID: 8148605

Claim:
A transgenic plant comprising: a. a first DNA construct comprising a plant operable promoter operably linked to a nucleic acid sequence encoding a sensor protein, said protein comprising a secretory sequence for directing the protein to the extracellular space of a plant cell and a binding region specific for a target substance of interest, wherein said protein undergoes a conformational change when the target substance is bound, wherein the sensor protein specifically binds trinitrotoluene and wherein the binding region is derived from a periplasmic binding protein, and b. a second DNA construct comprising a plant operable promoter operably linked to a nucleic acid sequence encoding a protein which comprises the following domains: a plasma membrane targeting signal sequence, an extracellular domain for binding the sensor protein, a transmembrane domain and a histidine kinase domain for phosphorylating a protein with nuclear shuttling or transcriptional activating functions, wherein the histidine kinase is activated when the sensor protein binds to the extracellular domain, and c. a third DNA construct comprising a plant operable promoter operably linked to a nucleic acid sequence encoding a detectable marker or a response gene, wherein the promoter is responsive to the transcriptional activator protein or nuclear shuttling protein, and wherein the detectable marker is expressed when the target substance of interest is bound to the sensor protein.