Patent ID: 7071376

Claim:
A method of altering the content or composition of lignin in a plant, comprising: (a) transforming plant cells with an isolated DNA comprising a nucleic acid sequence operably linked in either sense or antisense orientation to at least one regulatory sequence, wherein said nucleic acid comprises a nucleotide sequence coding for (i) an Arabidopsis P-coumarate 3-hydroxylase (C3H) comprising an amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO: 4 or SEQ ID NO: 6, or (ii) a protein comprising an amino acid sequence that has at least 90% identity with an amino acid set forth in SEQ ID NO: 4 or SEQ ID NO: 6, and has P-coumarate 3-hydroxylase activity, and (b) regenerating said plant from said transformed plant cells, wherein expression of said DNA alters the content and composition of lignin in said plant.