Patent ID: 7288408

Claim:
A method for increasing amino acid content in a plant tissue comprising: (A) preparing a nucleic acid molecule encoding a plant amino acid transporter, wherein the nucleic acid molecule is operably linked to a promoter that is active in the plant tissue, and wherein the nucleic acid molecule comprises a nucleic acid sequence selected from the group consisting of (1) a nucleic acid sequence with at least 90% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO: 5 and which encodes a protein having amino acid transporter activity, (2) a nucleic acid sequence encoding the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO:4, and (3) a nucleic acid sequence that hybridizes to the nucleic acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:5 under high stringency conditions of 0.2×SSC and 65° C. and which encodes a protein having amino acid transporter activity; (B) transforming a plant with said nucleic acid molecule; and (C) growing said plant, wherein expression of said nucleic acid molecule increases amino acid content in said plant relative to an untransformed plant having a similar genetic background.