Patent Application: US-200913063992-A

Abstract:
the present invention relates to the modification of fructan biosynthesis in plants and , more particularly , to methods of manipulating fructan biosynthesis in photosynthetic cells , and to related nucleic acids and constructs . the present invention also relates to increasing plant biomass and , more particularly , to methods of enhancing biomass yield and / or yield stability , including shoot and / or root growth in a plant , and to related nucleic acids and constructs . the present invention also relates to methods of enhancing the productivity of biochemical pathways and , more particularly , to fusion proteins in plants , and to related nucleic acids and constructs .

Description:
the present invention will now be more fully described with reference to the accompanying examples and drawings . it should be understood , however , that the description following is illustrative only and should not be taken in any way as a restriction on the generality of the invention described above . fig1 . model for targeted expression of fructan biosynthesis genes in photosynthetic cells in leaf blades . expression of fructosyl transferase ( ft ) genes is driven by photosynthetic promoters . fructan biosynthesis then occurs in sucrose producing , photosynthetic cells . pyramiding with modification of cytokinin biosynthesis to delay leaf senescence , thus extending life of photosynthetic cells that are engineered to synthesise fructans and leading to increased biomass production . fig2 . the expression of the rubisco small subunit gene in perennial ryegrass is light regulated as shown by quantitative real - time rt - pcr . tissue sampling occurred every four hours . boxes represent periods of daylight . fig3 . in silico expression patterns of the ribulose - 1 , 5 - bisphosphate carboxylase / oxygenase small subunit ( lprbcs ) and chlorophyll a / b binding protein ( lpcab ) in perennial ryegrass shows that it is most abundant in vegetative tissues . lprbcs ( contig lpcl9_c359 ) is represented by the 47 ests and lprbcs ( contig lpcl1112_c12 ) is represented by 19 ests . fig4 . nucleotide sequences of lpcab promoter ( seq id no : 1 ). fig5 . nucleotide sequences of lprbcs promoter ( seq id no : 2 ). fig6 . schematic representation of the fructan biosynthetic pathway in some grasses . fig7 . nucleotide sequence of lp6g - fft open reading frame ( seq id no : 3 ). fig8 . deduced amino acid sequence of lp6g - fft ( seq id no : 4 ). fig9 . nucleotide sequence of lp1 - fft open reading frame ( seq id no : 5 ). fig1 . deduced amino acid sequence of lp1 - fft ( seq id no : 6 ). fig1 . diagrammatic representation of the strategy used to generate the translational ft fusion of the lp1 - sst and lp6g - fft fructosyl transferase genes ( lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft ). fig1 . nucleotide sequence of lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft ft fusion 1 open reading frame ( seq id no : 7 ). fig1 . deduced amino acid sequence of lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft ft fusion 1 ( seq id no : 8 ). fig1 . nucleotide sequence of lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft ft fusion 3 open reading frame ( seq id no : 9 ). fig1 . deduced amino acid sequence of lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft ft fusion 3 ( seq id no : 10 ). fig1 . diagrammatic representation of the strategy to be used to generate the different translational ft fusions of the lp1 - sst , lp6g - fft and lp1 - fft fructosyl transferase genes . fig1 . ( a ) and ( b ) hypothetical model of the interaction of ft proteins to form a transmembrane protein . ( c ) representation of the key protein domains in lp1 - sst - 6g - fft proteins . box1 : ( n / s ) dpng ; box2 : rdp and box3 : ec represent the highly conserved domains involved in substrate ( sucrose ) binding and hydrolysis . crosses ( x ) represent the highly conserved amino acid sequences ( domains ) found among the ft , invertase and feh sequences from lolium species . ls - large subunit , su - small subunit . representation of the active domains within the amino acid sequence of the lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft ft fusion 3 protein can be found in fig3 . fig1 . amino acid alignment of ft , inv and feh from lolium perenne ( seq id nos : 11 - 33 ). the key protein domains found among the ft , invertase and feh sequences , such as ( n / s ) dpng , rdp and ec , which represent the highly conserved domains involved in substrate ( sucrose ) binding and hydrolysis , are bold underlined and labelled . highly conserved amino acid domains found among the ft , invertase and feh sequences from lolium species are underlined . representation of the active domains within the amino acid sequence of the lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft ft fusion 3 protein can be found in fig3 . fig1 . functional analysis of fructan : fructan 6g - fructosyltransferase ( lp6g - fft ). a . plasmid map of lp6g - fft in the yeast expression vector . b . excreted protein from yeast containing either ppiczαa :: lp6g - fft or ppiczαa vector only separated by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis . c . water soluble carbohydrate ( wsc ) traces after high pressure anion exchange chromatography ( hpaec ). wsc were isolated from onion , or solution of 1 - kestose incubated with either lp6g - fft purified protein ( ppiczαa :: lp6g - fft ) or vector only control ( ppiczαa ). fig2 . base destination vector , ppzp200 - ubi : bar - nos r4 r3 , used in multisite gateway recombinational cloning . fig2 . outline of the procedure for the in planta transient expression system . agrobacterium cultures are prepared that harbour the expression constructs . these are injected into tobacco leaves . after three days post filtration expression of the proteins are tested . upper right panel shows gus activity , lower right panel shows example of water soluble carbohydrate separation by hpaec . fig2 . high performance anion exchange chromatography ( hpaec ) is used to separate and quantify carbohydrates using standards ( 1 - kestose ), and to quantify the amount of total fructans extracted from a control plant ( 35s :: gus ) and transgenic plants transiently over - expressing lp1 - sst ( 355 :: 1 - sst ), lp6g - fft ( 35s :: 6g - fft ) and the ft fusion ( 35s :: lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft ). fig2 . destination vectors of wheat rubisco promoter driving expression of ( a ) lp1 - sst , ( b ) lp6g - fft , ( c ) lp1sst_lp6gfft ft fusion 1 , ( d ) lp1sst_lp6gfft ft fusion 3 , and ( e ) the gus marker gene . fig2 . sequence of tarbcs :: lp1 - sst :: tarbcs expression cassette ( seq id no : 34 ). the regulatory sequences , tarbcs promoter and terminator are indicated in italics and underlined italics , respectively . the orf sequence is indicated in regular font and the start ( atg ) and stop ( tag ) codons are shaded . fig2 . sequence of tarbcs :: lp6gfft :: tarbcs expression cassette ( seq id no : 35 ). the regulatory sequences , tarbcs promoter and terminator are indicated in italics and underlined italics , respectively . the orf sequence is indicated in regular font and the start ( atg ) and stop ( tag ) codons are shaded . fig2 . sequence of tarbcs :: lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft :: tarbcs ft fusion 1 expression cassette ( seq id no : 36 ). the regulatory sequences , tarbcs promoter and terminator are indicated in italics and underlined italics , respectively . the orf sequence is indicated in regular font and the start ( atg ) and stop ( tag ) codons are shaded . fig2 . sequence of tarbcs :: lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft :: tarbcs ft fusion 3 expression cassette ( seq id no : 37 ). the regulatory sequences , tarbcs promoter and terminator are indicated in italics and underlined italics , respectively . the orf sequence is indicated in regular font and the start ( atg ) and stop ( tag ) codons are shaded . fig2 . vector pbluescript sk harbouring the lpft4 3 ′ terminator sequence , pbs - lpft4 . fig2 . ( a ) the plasmid pbs - lp1 - sst :: ft4 and ( b ) the plasmid pbs - lprbcs :: lp1 - sst :: lpft4 . fig3 . ( a ) the plasmid pbs - lpcab :: lpft4 and ( b ) the plasmid pbs - lpcab :: lp6g - fft :: lpft4 . fig3 . sequence of lprbcs :: lp1 - sst :: lpft4 expression cassette ( seq id no : 38 ). the regulatory sequences , lprbcs promoter and lpft4 terminator are indicated in italics and underlined italics , respectively . the orf sequence is indicated in regular font and the start ( atg ) and stop ( tag ) codons are shaded . fig3 . sequence of lpcab :: lp6g - fft :: lpft4 expression cassette ( seq id no : 39 ). the regulatory sequences , lprbcs promoter and lpft4 terminator are indicated in italics and underlined italics , respectively . the orf sequence is indicated in regular font and the start ( atg ) and stop ( tag ) codons are shaded . fig3 . destination vectors containing the ryegrass rubisco ( lprbcs ) promoter driving ft fusions 1 and 3 . ( a ) pbs - lprbcs :: lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft :: lpft4 ft fusion1 and ( b ) pbs - lprbcs :: lp1 - sst - lp6g - fft :: lpft4 ft fusion 3 . fig3 . sequence of lprbcs :: lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft :: lpft4 ft fusion 1 expression cassette ( seq id no : 40 ). the regulatory sequences , lprbcs promoter and lpft4 terminator are indicated in italics and underlined italics , respectively . the orf sequence is indicated in regular font and the start ( atg ) and stop ( tag ) codons are shaded . fig3 . sequence of lprbcs :: lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft :: lpft4 ft fusion 3 expression cassette ( seq id no : 41 ). the regulatory sequences , lprbcs promoter and lpft4 terminator are indicated in italics and underlined italics , respectively . the orf sequence is indicated in regular font and the start ( atg ) and stop ( tag ) codons are shaded . the amino acid sequence is indicated in bold ( seq id no : 42 ). domains are highlighted as follows : the boxes indicate the highly conserved motifs in the family of the 32 glycoside hydrolases including invertases , fructosyltransferases and fructan exohydrolases which are involved in substrate binding and hydrolysis : double underlines show trans - membrane domains ; and shaded boxes represent conservative domains among 32 glycoside hydrolases . fig3 . destination vector containing the arabidopsis rubisco ( atrbcs ) promoter driving ft fusion 3 , ppzp200_atrbcs :: lp1 - sst — 6g - fft :: nos ft fusion 3 . fig3 . sequence of the atrbcs :: lp1 - sst - 6g - fft :: nos ft fusion 3 expression construct ( seq id no : 43 ). fig3 . details of the base vector pbluescript sk (−) from promega , with the positions of the restriction endonuclease sites for cloning indicated . fig4 . vector backbone used for construction of p - ubi :: lp1 - sst :: 35s and p - ubi :: lp6g - fft :: 35s ( ye et al ., 2001 ). fig4 . representative sequence of a constitutive ( ubi ) promoter combined with a ft fusion protein and a terminator sequence ( seq id no : 44 ). the regulatory sequences , ubi promoter and lpft4 terminator are indicated in italics and underlined italics , respectively . the orf sequence is indicated in regular font and the start ( atg ) and stop ( tag ) codons are shaded . fig4 . representative sequence of a constitutive (( camv ) 35s 2 ) promoter combined with a ft fusion protein and a terminator sequence ( seq id no : 45 ). the regulatory sequences , ( camv ) 35s 2 promoter and lpft4 terminator are indicated in italics and underlined italics , respectively . the orf sequence is indicated in regular font and the start ( atg ) and stop ( tag ) codons are shaded . fig4 . representative sequence of a constitutive ( rubq2 ) promoter combined with a ft fusion protein and a terminator sequence ( seq id no : 46 ). the regulatory sequences , rubq2i promoter and lpft4 terminator are indicated in italics and underlined italics , respectively . the orf sequence is indicated in regular font and the start ( atg ) and stop ( tag ) codons are shaded . fig4 . representative sequence of a constitutive ( osact1 ) promoter combined with a ft fusion protein and a terminator sequence ( seq id no : 47 ). the regulatory sequences , osact1 promoter and lpft4 terminator are indicated in italics and underlined italics , respectively . the orf sequence is indicated in regular font and the start ( atg ) and stop ( tag ) codons are shaded . fig4 . representative sequence of a tissue specific ( tuber ) promoter ( cathlnh ) combined with a ft fusion protein and a terminator sequence ( seq id no : 48 ). the regulatory sequences , cathlnh promoter and lpft4 terminator are indicated in italics and underlined italics , respectively . the orf sequence is indicated in regular font and the start ( atg ) and stop ( tag ) codons are shaded . fig4 . representative sequence of a stress regulated ( atrd29a ) promoter combined with a ft fusion protein and a terminator sequence ( seq id no : 49 ). the regulatory sequences , atrd29a promoter and lpft4 terminator are indicated in italics and underlined italics , respectively . the orf sequence is indicated in regular font and the start ( atg ) and stop ( tag ) codons are shaded . fig4 . representative sequence of a sucrose regulated ( 16r ) promoter combined with a ft fusion protein and a terminator sequence ( seq id no : 50 ). the regulatory sequences , 16r promoter and lpft4 terminator are indicated in italics and underlined italics , respectively . the orf sequence is indicated in regular font and the start ( atg ) and stop ( tag ) codons are shaded . fig4 . plant regeneration phenotypes of transgenic perennial ryegrass after co - transformation with the tarbcs promoter light - regulated gene constructs ( table 1 ) and the pach1 vector , with selection on hygromycin . the plants that contain either of the tarbcs :: lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft :: tarbcs ft fusion constructs show growth advantage under in vitro culture conditions thus allowing for their early identification and screening ( far right column ). fig4 . plant regeneration phenotypes of transgenic perennial ryegrass after co - transformation with the lprbcs promoter light - regulated gene constructs with selection on hygromycin . the plants contain either the lprbcs :: lp1 - sst :: lpft4 or the lprbcs :: lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft :: lpft4 ft fusion 1 / 3 constructs . the plants that contain the ft fusion constructs show growth advantage under in vitro culture conditions fig5 . mature plant phenotypes under glasshouse conditions . representative samples of transgenic perennial ryegrass plants at the vegetative stage . the tarbcs :: lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft :: lpft4 ft fusion transgenic perennial ryegrass plants show enhanced growth performance with larger leaves , enhanced tillers , increased root growth compared to control , non - transgenic perennial ryegrass plants . the plants were trimmed equally three weeks earlier . close up micrographs of the leaf blades indicate and increase leaf diameter in ft fusion transgenics . fig5 . representative samples of transgenic perennial ryegrass mature plant phenotypes ( 4 weeks ) under field conditions . the ft fusion transgenic perennial ryegrass plants show enhanced growth performance with larger leaves , enhanced tillers , increased root growth compared to control lp1 - sst transgenic perennial ryegrass plants . fig5 . representative examples of phenotypic biomass scores ( 1 — least biomass to 5 — most biomass ) of transgenic perennial ryegrass plants expressing ft fusion transgenes under field conditions . fig5 . leaf phenotypes of transgenic perennial ryegrass . representative samples of hand sections of leaf blades at vegetative stage . left shows comparison of whole leaf sections , right magnified areas of leaf sections . ad - adaxial , ab - abaxial . fig5 . biochemical analysis ( hpaec ) of fructan level and composition present in stable transgenic tarbcs :: lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft :: tarbcs ft fusion 3 , tarbcs :: lp1 - sst :: tarbcs , tarbcs :: lp6g - fft :: tarbcs perennial ryegrass plants and control perennial ryegrass plants harbouring only the selectable marker ( hph gene ). fig5 . biochemical analysis ( hpaec ) of total fructans present in whole tillers of ( a ) tarbcs :: lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft :: tarbcs ft fusion 1 , ( b ) tarbcs :: lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft :: tarbcs ft fusion 3 , ( c ) tarbcs :: lp1 - sst :: tarbcs , and ( d ) tarbcs :: 6g - fft :: tarbcs transgenic perennial ryegrass plants compared to control perennial ryegrass plants ( lanes 6 ′ and 1 ′), harbouring only the selectable marker ( hph gene ). fig5 . biochemical analysis ( hpaec ) of 1 - kestose present in whole tillers of ( a ) tarbcs :: lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft :: tarbcs ft fusion 1 , ( b ) tarbcs :: lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft :: tarbcs ft fusion 3 , ( c ) tarbcs :: lp1 - sst :: tarbcs , and ( d ) tarbcs :: 6g - fft :: tarbcs transgenic perennial ryegrass plants compared to control perennial ryegrass plants ( lanes 6 ′ and 1 ′), harbouring only the selectable marker ( hph gene ). fig5 . biochemical analysis ( hpaec ) of sucrose present in whole tillers of ( a ) tarbcs :: lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft :: tarbcs ft fusion 1 , ( b ) tarbcs :: lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft :: tarbcs ft fusion 3 , ( c ) tarbcs :: lp1 - sst :: tarbcs , and ( d ) tarbcs :: 6g - fft :: tarbcs transgenic perennial ryegrass plants compared to a control perennial ryegrass plants ( lanes 6 ′ and 1 ′), harbouring only the selectable marker ( hph gene ). fig5 . fructan levels in whole tillers and leaf blades in wild - type ( control ) and ft fusion and lprbcs :: lp1 - sst transgenic perennial ryegrass plants grown under field conditions and harvested in december 2009 . fig5 . fructan composition in leaf blades of wild - type and lprbcs :: lp1 - sst transgenic perennial ryegrass plants grown under field conditions . box 1 represents low dp fructan ( dp up to 10 - 15 ). box 2 represents high dp fructan ( dp higher than 10 - 15 ). fig6 . transgene expression in whole tillers of lprbcs ft fusion and lprbcs :: lp1 - sst transgenic perennial ryegrass plants grown under field conditions . samples were collected in november ( white bars ) and december ( black bars ) 2009 . samples were normalised against endogenous histone expression and are presented as number of transcript copies per 35 ng of rna . fig6 . phenotypic analysis of the transgenic perennial ryegrass after 7 weeks ( a - c ) and 12 weeks ( d - e ) propagation in potting mix from a single tiller . tarbcs :: lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft :: tarbcs ft fusion 1 ( a , d ) and tarbcs :: lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft :: tarbcs ft fusion 3 ( b ) plants , show greater leaf length and number of tillers in fusion plants compared to the control plants expressing only the hph gene ( c , e ) fig6 . quantitative phenotypic analysis of the transgenic tarbcs :: lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft :: tarbcs ft fusion 1 and tarbcs :: lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft :: tarbcs ft fusion 3 plants after 7 weeks ( white bars ) and 12 weeks ( black bars ) growth . measurements were conducted for plant height ( a ), leaf width ( b ) and tiller number ( c ) compared to the average of 8 control plants expressing only the hph gene . fig6 . transgenic perennial ryegrass plants expressing lxr ® technology alone ( atmyb32 :: ipt ), lprbcs :: lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft :: lpft4 ft fusion 3 alone , as well as lxr ® and lprbcs :: lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft :: lpft4 ft fusion 3 together under glasshouse conditions . fig6 . herbage dry weight analysis of goi - ve control ( average of five lines ) and independent ft fusion alone or the ft fusion plus lxr ® transgenic perennial ryegrass plants , grown under glasshouse conditions and collected 6 weeks post - trim . fig6 . fructan levels in leaf blades of goi - ve control ( average of five lines ) and independent ft fusion alone or ft fusion plus lxr ® transgenic perennial ryegrass plants , grown under glasshouse conditions . fig6 . transgenic tall fescue plants expressing lprbcs :: lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft :: lpft4 ft fusion 3 under glasshouse conditions . fig6 . herbage dry weight analysis of glass house grown goi - ve control ( average of five lines ) and independent ft fusion alone or ft fusion plus lxr ® transgenic tall fescue plants . fig6 . tiller number of glass house grown goi - ve control ( average of five lines ) and independent ft fusion alone or ft fusion plus lxr ® transgenic tall fescue plants . fig6 . fructan accumulation in leaf blades of glass house grown goi - ve control ( average of five lines ) and independent transgenic tall fescue lines expressing the ft fusion . fig7 . plant regeneration phenotypes of transgenic wheat plants after transformation with the light - regulated gene constructs . the transgenic wheat plants growing in vitro that contain the lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft ft fusion construct show growth advantage under in vitro culture conditions thus allowing for their early identification and screening . the superior growth phenotype of the transgenic wheat ft fusion lines was observed during the early stages of in vitro plant regeneration conducted on tissue culture plates . six weeks after incubation under light conditions the calli showed further developed in vitro growing tillers / shoots ( panel a ) and more specifically further developed in vitro growing roots ( panel b ) in the transgenic wheat plants growing in vitro that contain the lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft ft fusion construct compared to the control plants . fig7 . the transgenic wheat plants that contain the tarbcs :: lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft :: tarbcs ft fusion construct showed an obvious early increase in tiller number as compared to control plants growing under ( a ) 2 months in in vitro conditions and ( b ) under glasshouse conditions . fig7 . transgenic wheat plants that contain ft fusion constructs showed an obvious early increase in tiller number as compared to control plants growing under glasshouse conditions . fig7 . the transgenic wheat plants that contain lxr ® technology showed an obvious early increase in tiller number as compared to control plants under glasshouse conditions ( a ). they also showed and increase of photosynthetic tissue after 35 days under glasshouse conditions ( b ). fig7 . phenotypic analysis of transgenic wheat plants expressing lxr ® technology alone ( atmyb3 :: ipt :: 35s ), tarbcs :: lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft :: tarbcs ft fusion 3 alone , as well as lxr ® and tarbcs :: lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft :: tarbcs ft fusion 3 together under glasshouse conditions . fig7 . fructan accumulation and tiller number in transgenic wheat plants containing either ft fusion constructs alone or lxr ® plus ft fusion constructs , as compared to transformed gene of interest minus ( goi -) controls . fig7 . fructan accumulation in t 1 goi - ve control , ft fusion alone and lxr ® plus ft fusion transgenic wheat plants nine weeks after sowing . the fructan level in the control represents the data average obtained from six goi - ve plants . fig7 . phenotype of transgenic white clover plants expressing lxr ®, atrbcs :: lp1 - sst - 6g_ff :: nos ft fusion or lxr ® plus atrbcs :: lp1 - sst - 6g_ff :: nos ft fusion constructs as compared to transformed goi minus controls . fig7 . transgene expression levels of the ft fusion transgene driven by the atrbcs promoter in white clover plants . controls were wild type plants . samples were normalised against endogenous histone expression and are presented as number of transcript copies per 35 ng of rna . fig7 . fructan accumulation in wild - type control , atrbcs ft fusion and atrbcs ft fusion plus lxr ® transgenic white clover lines . fig8 . phenotype of transgenic arabidopsis plants expressing lxr ®, atrbcs :: lp1 - sst - 6g_ff :: nos ft fusion or lxr ® plus atrbcs :: lp1 - sst - 6g_ff :: nos ft fusion constructs as compared to transformed goi minus controls . fig8 . transgene expression levels of the ft fusion transgene driven by the atrbcs promoter in arabidopsis plants . controls were wild type plants . samples were normalised against endogenous histone expression and are presented as number of transcript copies per 35 ng of rna . fig8 . transgenic t 2 ft fusion arabidopsis plants grown in soil . fig8 . leaves from a . white clover , b . canola and c . wheat plants displaying delayed leaf senescence ( leaves from lxr ® transgenic plants , lower images ) as compared to negative control plants ( leaves from control plants , upper images ) 7 - 20 days following detachment of leaves from plants . fig8 . positive selection of perennial ryegrass transgenic plants by screening of in vitro growth phenotype on plates without antibiotic selection . a - c . calli in dark for 8 weeks after transformation ; d - f . 1 week after transfer to light . fig8 . embryogenic perennial ryegrass calli bombarded with gold particles alone ( control ) and gold particles covered with tarbcs ft fusion vector prior to , and four weeks post , transfer to light . fig8 . embryogenic perennial ryegrass calli bombarded with gold particles alone ( control ) and gold particles covered with tarbcs ft fusion 1 alone , tarbcs ft fusion 3 alone , lxr alone , as well as tarbcs ft fusion plus lxr vectors five weeks after transfer to light . molecular analysis positive lines : tarbcs ft fusion 1 # 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 7 , 6 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 16 , 17 ; tarbcs ft fusion 3 # 1 , 2 , 3 , 5 , 8 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 ; tarbcs ft fusion 1 plus lxr # 1 , 2 , 7 , 12 ( tarbcs ft fusion 1 alone ); # 8 , 14 ( tarbcs ft fusion 1 plus lxr ). the ribulose - 1 , 5 - bisphosphate carboxylase / oxygenase small subunit ( rbcs ) is a well - characterised light - regulated gene in higher plants . the bread wheat ( triticum aestivum ), tarbcs regulatory sequences ( promoter and terminator ) have previously been cloned ( zeng , et al ., 1995 ; sasanuma , 2001 ). a 695 bp promoter fragment from sequence previously published containing the tata signal from the tarbcs gene ( ncbi accession number ab042069 ) was pcr - amplified . a 1700 bp fragment of the arabidopsis thaliana ribulose - 1 , 5 - bisphosphate carboxylase / oxygenase small subunit ( atrbcs ) promoter sequence has previously been cloned . primers will be designed to amplify a smaller fragment containing the tata signal from the atrbcs promoter for use in expression vectors . the expression of rbcs and chlorophyll a / b binding protein ( cab ) are well characterised light - regulated genes in higher plants . the abundance of lprbcs mrna transcripts in perennial ryegrass by quantitative real time pcr is illustrated in fig2 . both lprbcs and lpcab genes were chosen for promoter discovery and isolation in perennial ryegrass . publicly available cdna sequences ( lprbcs , ec778430 and lpcab , ec778438 ) were used as query sequences in a blast search of the perennial ryegrass est database in our in - house database . as both genes are members of multigene families , several contigs ( each contig represents an individual gene ) were identified in our perennial ryegrass est collection . nine contigs were identified to be homologous to the published lprbcs cdna sequence and thirteen contigs were found to be homologous to the lpcab cdna sequence . two contigs , lpcl9_c359 ( lprbcs ) and lpcl1112_c12 ( lpcab ), representing the genes of the promoters to be isolated , contained ( 47 ) and ( 19 ) est sequences , respectively . these sequences came from a variety of libraries representing a range of different tissues . this data was used for in silico expression analysis and indicated that both genes are only expressed in photosynthetic tissues ( fig3 ). dna sequence alignments for each of the gene family members were performed , and gene - specific primers were designed for contigs lprbcs_c359 and lpcab_c12 and used to screen perennial ryegrass bac dna pools by pcr . the bac clones were identified and sequenced . primers were designed and the lolium perenne specific promoter regulatory sequences were cloned , sequenced ( fig4 and 5 ) and the cis - regulatory sequences specific for photosynthetic promoters were identified by place ( http :// www . dna . affrc . go . jp / place /) ( table 1 ). the sequences included the i - box motif and the gt1 box for rbcs ( terzaghi , et al ., 1995 ; martinez - hernandez , et al ., 2002 ). in addition 16 / 19 nucleotides of the lprbcs sequence shared homology with the monocot rbcs consensus sequence ( schaffner , et al ., 1991 ). the i - core box and sorlips cis - regulatory sequences were present in the cab promoter . sorlips were found to be over - represented in light - induced promoters in arabidopsis ( hudson , et al ., 2003 ). the lolium perenne cdna clones encoding sequences for lp1 - sst and lp6g - fft have previously been isolated from a perennial ryegrass cdna library ( chalmers , et al ., 2003 ; chalmers , et al ., 2005 ). the complete gene sequences of the isolated perennial ryegrass fructosyltransferase homologues are available , and nucleotide and protein sequences for lp1 - sst are disclosed in international patent application pct au01 / 00705 ( seq id nos 11 and 12 ). partial sequence for lp6g - fft is disclosed in international patent pct / au / 01 / 01275 seq ids 109 and 110 , for nucleotide and amino acid sequences respectively . the full - length clone was pcr amplified from a cdna , cloned and sequenced ( fig7 ). when the lp6g - fft orf was compared with the published lp6g - fft from l . perenne 23 nucleotide changes were noted . comparison of the predicted protein sequences revealed only two changes between the two amino acid sequences ( fig8 ). other ft genes that may be used and , either transformed singly or co - transformed with lp1 - sst and lp6g - fft include lp1 - fft , lp6 - sft and lp6 - sst . the cdna sequence for lp1 - fft has been isolated from perennial ryegrass ( fig9 ) and the amino acid sequence is represented in fig1 . as an example , primers based on this sequence could be used to amplify the full - length cdna by pcr for cloning and use in the present invention as described below . other homologous proteins can be found by screening databases such as embl ( http :// www . ebi . ac . uk / tools / index . htm ) or the national center for biotechnology information ( ncbi , http :// www . ncbi . nlm . nih . gov / blast / blast . cgi #). in such a database search , for example the sequences described in fig7 - 10 are set as a query , using default parameter settings set for the database . for example , for protein sequence alignments ( blastp ) with ncbi these settings are as follows : limit entrez = not activated ; filter = low complexity activated ; expect value = 10 ; word size = 3 ; matrix = blosum ; gapcostsexistence - 11 , extension = 1 . such database searches can be used for finding proteins with domains contained in fts ( using default parameters ). a genetic ft fusion was created between the open reading frames for lp1 - sst and lp6g - fft , following the procedure depicted in fig1 . the lp1 - sst gene was pcr - amplified with a gateway recombination site incorporated in the forward primer . a sequence that codes for three glycine residues followed by a hind iii site was incorporated into the reverse primer , with the stop codon removed . the lp6g - fft gene was pcr - amplified with a hind iii site followed by sequence that codes for three glycine residues and the gene specific sequence without the atg . the reverse primer for the lp6g - fft gene was flanked by a second gateway recombination site . the primer sequences are provided in table 2 . the purified fragments were digested with hind iii and the ligated product was cloned into the invitrogen gateway pdonr221 entry vector . when the resultant pentry1 - lp1 - sst - lp6g - fft - 2 entry clones were sequenced , one sequence ( ft fusion 1 ) was confirmed to be the predicted product , with eight amino acids in the linker joining the two genes ( fig1 and 13 ). whereas , another sequence ( ft fusion 3 ) contained two consecutive hind iii sites , which would result in the addition of another two amino acids , giving a total of ten amino acids between the two ft genes upon translation ( fig1 and 15 ). by using the primer sequences outlined in table 3 it is possible to create a new ft fusion reversing the order to lp6g - fft - lp1sst using the same method as illustrated above . in lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft the ft proteins physically associate with each other to form a ft fusion protein which contains three transmembrane domains as designated by sosui , a classification and secondary structure prediction of membrane proteins database ( table 4 , fig1 and 18 ). plant fts have a high degree of amino acid homology to the vacuolar , acid invertases ( b - fructosidases ) which are the members of the glycoside hydrolase family 32 . ( gh32 ) and share three highly conserved regions characterised by the motifs ( n / s ) dpng ( also called b - fructosidase motif ), rdp , and ec ( altenbach et al ., 2005 ) ( fig1 , 18 and 36 ). another common feature of plant fts and vacuolar invertases is that they usually are composed of a large and a small subunit due to posttranslational processing . the large subunit , which harbours all three conserved motifs mentioned above , determines the catalytic specificity ( altenbach et al ., 2004 ). the other ft genes lp1 - fft , lp6 - sft and lp6 - sst may also be used in combination with lp1 - sst or lp6g - fft to produce a selection of translational ft fusions , by the scheme outlined in fig1 a , as indicated below . a triplicate ft fusion could also be created using a similar methodology ( fig1 b ). it is proposed that the triplicate fusion would be constructed to incorporate the genes lp1 - sst , lp6g - fft and lp1 - fft , lp6 - sft or lp6 - sst . by altering the primer sequences used to join the two ft genes together it is possible to change the linker size and potentially add up to approximately 30 amino acids . ft proteins could physically associate with each other to form a metabolic channel , therefore the distance separating the ft genes within the translational fusion may affect protein function . ft fusion proteins preferably contain the sequences which represent the domains which are highly conserved among the ft , inv and feh proteins from lolium perenne plants indicated in fig1 , 18 and 36 . the cdna sequence encoding the lp1 - sst mature protein has been previously expressed in pichia pastoris for functional characterisation ( chalmers , et al ., 2003 ) and the conversion of sucrose to 1 - kestose by expression of this protein was demonstrated . similarly , the lp6g - fft cdna was cloned into the expression vector ppiczαa ( invitrogen ) that contains a methanol - inducible promoter and the saccharomyces cerevisiae α - factor sequence to enable secretion of the recombinant protein for isolation for functional characterisation . the recombinant lp6g - fft enzyme was produced from single colonies of transformed p . pastoris inoculated into a pre - culture medium and induced by the addition of methanol for a 45 hr duration . the supernatant was concentrated and samples were incubated with 100 mm sucrose overnight . the carbohydrates produced were analysed by hpaec according to chalmers et al ., 2003 , using fructan extracts from onion as a control ( fig1 ). a number of vectors were constructed using invitrogen multisite gateway ™ technology ( see www . invitogen . com for product manual ) based on recombinational cloning . this methodology relies on the generation of individual entry plasmids containing , either the promoter , gene of interest ( goi ), or terminator sequences flanked by recombination sites . the recombination sites facilitate the directional triple insertion of each of the entry plasmids into a gateway - enabled destination vector , by recombination . the final vector is then sequenced and used directly for plant co - transformation with a plasmid , or expression cassette , for expression of a plant selectable marker . in order to test the function of the ft fusion protein , the ft fusion 1 and 3 orfs were cloned under the control of the enhanced cauliflower mosaic virus ( camv ) 35s 2 promoter ( kay , et al ., 1987 ), using the multisite gateway ™ technology recombination system ( see www . invitrogen . com for product manual ) into agrobacterium binary vector ( fig2 ) ( hajdukiewicz , et al ., 1994 ). gateway entry vectors were constructed for the ( camv ) 35s 2 promoter , the tarbcs terminator sequence , as well as ft fusion 1 and 3 orfs . the cloned fragments were sequence - verified and used for three - way recombination cloning with the cloned goi cdna sequences into the ppzp200 - ubi : bar - nos r4 r3 destination vector . in addition , constructs also included the lp6g - fft and lp1 - sst single orf driven by the ( camv ) 35s 2 promoter as controls . as an example , the lp1 - fft ( or lp6 - sft , lp6 - sst ) single orf is also cloned in the same manner . as a control the gus orf was used for confirmation of expression . the following constructs were made . ppzp200 - 35s 2 :: lp6g - fft :: tarbcs ppzp200 - 35s 2 :: lp1 - sst :: tarbcs ppzp200 - 35s 2 ::( lp1 - fft / lp6 - sft / lp - sst ):: tarbcs ppzp200 - 35s 2 :: lp1 - sst :: 6g - fft :: tarbcs ( ft fusion 1 and 3 ) ppzp200 - 35s 2 :: gus :: tarbcs utilising invitrogen multisite gateway ™ technology the following vectors are created containing the atrbcs photosynthetic promoter and the ( camv ) 35s terminator for use in transient assays . ppzp200 - atrbcs :: lp1 - sst :: 35s ppzp200 - atrbcs :: lp6g - fft :: 35s ppzp200 - atrbcs ::( lp1 - fft / lp6 - sft / lp - sst ):: 35s ppzp200 - atrbcs :: lp1 - sst :: 6g - fft :: 35s ( ft fusion 1 and 3 ) function of lp1 - sst , lp6g - fft and ft fusion protein in transient transgene expression assays for proof - of - function transient expression of the constructs containing chimeric lp1 - sst , lp6g - fft and ft fusion protein genes driven by the ( camv ) 35s promoter was conducted in tobacco plants , as they do not naturally produce fructans . the method involved agro - infiltration of the individual constructs into n . benthamiana leaves ( kapila , et al ., 1997 ; wydro , et al ., 2006 ) followed by biochemical analysis by anion exchange chromatography . a diagram of the transient expression procedure is illustrated in fig2 . three days after the injection the plant material was harvested and the water - soluble carbohydrates were extracted using a hot water extraction method . the extracts were separated using high performance anion exchange chromatography ( hpaec ). the results show production of fructans , with the increased production of both 1 - kestose and 6g - kestose by the ft fusion protein ( fig2 ). an equivalent experiment is used to assess the function constructs containing chimeric lp1 - sst , lp6g - fft and ft fusion protein genes driven by the atrbcs promoter . to assess the function of the fructan biosynthesis when transcriptionally co - ordinated together in a cell , triple agro - infiltration experiments are conducted using the groups of vectors outlined below . the transient expression procedure as illustrated in fig2 is used to insert three vectors together in the same plant tissue . three days after the injection , the plant material is harvested and the water - soluble carbohydrates extracted using a hot water extraction method . the extracts are separated using high performance anion exchange chromatography ( hpaec ). the results indicate the differences resulting from the independent expression of three fructan biosynthesis genes in the plant genome . by comparison to the transcriptional co - transformation experiments are conducted to compare translational co - transformation by conducting transient assays with the vectors that have previously been discussed and are indicated below . ppzp200 - 35s2 :: lp1 - sst — 6g - fft :: tarbcs ( ft fusion 1 and 3 ) ppzp200 - atrbcs :: lp1 - sst — 6g - fft :: 35s ( ft fusion 1 and 3 ) production of lxr ® vector for biolistic and agrobacterium - mediated transformation lxr ® technology is based on vectors containing one cytokinin biosynthesis gene encoding isopentenyl transferase ( ipt ) for delayed leaf senescence under the control of the atmyb32 gene promoter . the lxr ® vector for biolistic transformation was constructed utilising gateway ™ multisite technology . details of the binary vector pbs - ubi :: bar :: nos_atmyb32_ipt — 35s are described in international patent application pct / au01 / 01092 . the production of the lxr ® vectors for agrobacterium - mediated transformation is disclosed in international patent application pct / au01 / 01092 . the candidate gene constructs were fully sequenced and the vectors were generated for agrobacterium mediated transformation following strict quality assurance protocols . a 695 kb promoter fragment from sequence previously published containing the tata signal from the tarbcs gene ( ncbi accession number ab042069 ) was pcr - amplified with gateway ™ ( invitrogen ) recombination sites at the primer flanks . the fragment was cloned into the invitrogen pdonrp4 - p1r entry vector using gateway ™ recombination technology . the 696 bp tarbcs gene termination signal sequence ( sasanuma , 2001 ) was also pcr - amplified using primers with recombination sites and cloned into the invitrogen pdonrp2 - p3r entry vector . the cloned fragments were sequence - verified and used for three - way recombination cloning with the cloned goi cdna sequences into the pdest - r4r3 destination vector : pdestr1 - r2r - lp1 - sst , pdestr1 - r2 - lp6g - fft , and pdestp1 - p2r - lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft gene ft fusion expression vectors . the following constructs for photosynthetic - regulation of expression of fructosyltransferases by the tarbcs promoter to be used are outlined below and graphically depicted in fig2 . expression cassette sequences for pdest - tarbcs :: lp1 - sst :: tarbcs , pdest - tarbcs :: lp6g - fft :: tarbcs and pdest - tarbcs :: lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft :: tarbcs ft fusion1 and 3 are provided in fig2 - 27 . constructs containing a ryegrass photosynthetic promoter were produced by conventional cloning methods . the 693 base pair ( bp ) fructosyltransferase 4 gene ( lpft4 ) termination sequence ( lidgett , et al ., 2002 ) was amplified by pcr using gene specific primers containing the restriction endonuclease ( re ) site ecor i at the 5 ′ end of the forward pcr primer . ecor v and xma i endonuclease restriction sites were incorporated at the 3 ′ end of the reverse pcr primer . the pcr product was cloned into the ecor i and xma i restriction endonuclease sites of the pbluescript sk (−) vector dna ( short , et al ., 1988 ), resulting in the plasmid pbs - lpft4 ( fig2 ). the lprbcs promoter was amplified using gene specific primers containing the endonuclease restriction sites xho i and ecor v at the 5 ′ end of the forward primer and an ecor i restriction site was incorporated in the 3 ′ end of the reverse primer . the 610 bp pcr product was cloned into the pbs - lpft4 plasmid digested with ecor i and xho i , resulting in the plasmid pbs - lprbcs :: lpft4 ( fig2 a ). the lp1 - sst coding region was amplified from a cdna template ( chalmers et al ., 2003 ) with ecor i sites flanking both forward and reverse pcr primers , and cloned into the ecor i site of pbs - lprbcs :: lpft4 vector , generating the final construct pbs - lprbcs :: lp1 - sst :: lpft4 ( fig2 b ). sequence of the expression cassette , indicating promoter and terminator , as well as orf is provided in fig3 . the expression cassette containing the l . perenne sequences may be excised from the plasmid vector dna using the ecor v restriction endonuclease . following agarose gel electrophoresis , the resulting dna fragment is purified from the agarose matrix prior to being used for plant transformation to produce dna with out vector backbone sequences . the plasmid pbs - lpft4 ( fig2 ) containing the 693 base pair lpft4 terminator sequence was prepared as outlined above . the lpcab promoter fragment of 870 base pairs was amplified with a forward pcr primer containing the xho i and ecor v sites and a reverse pcr primer containing the ecor i restriction site . this fragment was cloned in the xho i and ecor i sites of pbs - lpft4 , generating the pbs - lpcab :: lpft4 plasmid ( fig3 a ). the lp6g - fft coding region was amplified from a cdna template ( chalmers , et al ., 2005 ) with ecor i sites flanking both forward and reverse pcr primers , and cloned into the ecor i site of pbs - lpcab :: lpft4 vector , generating the final construct pbs - lpcab :: lp6g - fft :: lpft4 ( fig3 b ). sequence of the expression cassette , indicating promoter and terminator , as well as orf is provided in fig3 . the dna expression cassette may be excised from the plasmid vector dna using the ecor v restriction endonuclease . following agarose gel electrophoresis , the resulting dna fragment is purified from the agarose matrix prior to being used for plant transformation to produce dna without vector backbone sequences . to generate an expression construct , the translational ft fusion between the genes lp1 - sst and lp6g - fft was amplified from pdest - tarbcs :: lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft :: tarbcs ft fusion 1 and 3 plasmids ( fig2 c - d ) using primers specific for a region just outside the orf , with ecor i restriction sites engineered in the 3 ′ region on both the forward and reverse primers . the 3920 bp orf was pcr amplified and cloned into pcr ®- blunt vector ( invitrogen ) to produce pcr blunt - lp1 - sst - lp6g - fft ft fusion ( fig3 ). it was then excised using ecor i restriction enzymes to remove the vector - specific sequences , and cloned into the pbs - lprbcs :: lpft4 plasmid ( fig2 a ) at the ecor i restriction site , generating the pbs - lprbcs :: lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft :: lpft4 ( fig3 ). sequence of the expression cassette of ft fusion 1 and 3 , indicating relevant domains ( ft fusion 3 ), is provided in fig3 and 36 , respectively . the dna expression cassette may be excised from the plasmid vector dna using the ecor v restriction endonuclease . following agarose gel electrophoresis , the resulting dna fragment is purified from the agarose matrix prior to being used for plant transformation to produce dna without vector backbone sequences . the constructs for photosynthetic - regulation of expression of fructosyltransferases by l perenne promoter sequences are outlined below . a construct containing an arabidopsis photosynthetic promoter driving expression of ft fusion 3 was produced using multisite gateway cloning methods - ppzp200_atrbcs :: lp1 - sst — 6g - fft :: 35s ft fusion 3 ( fig3 ). the sequence of the atrbcs :: lp1 - sst 6g - fft :: nos ft fusion 3 expression cassette is provided in fig3 . constructs containing the promoter and first intron of the maize ( zea mays ) ubiquitin ( ubi ) gene ( christensen et al ., 1992 ) were produced by conventional cloning methods . the ubi promoter is considered a constitutive promoter , but expression is highest in young actively growing grass tissues ( rooke et al ., 2000 ). a cdna copy of the candidate genes lp1 - sst and lp6g - fft was amplified by pcr as described by chalmers et . al . ( 2003 ) and cloned into the pbluescript sk (−) vector ( fig3 ). the cdna fragments were excised using the restriction endonucleases xho i and xba i , and then blunt - end cloned into the bamh i site of p - ubi - 35s vector ( fig4 ). the p - ubi - 35s binary plant expression vector has been previously described in other transformation experiments of l . multiflorum ( ye et al ., 2001 ). the p - ubi :: lp1 - sst :: 35s and p - ubi :: lp6g - fft :: 35s clones containing the dna insert in the required 5 ′ to 3 ′ orientation were confirmed by dna sequencing . a representative sequence of the constitutive ( ubi ) promoter combined with a ft fusion protein and a terminator sequence is provided in fig4 . a similar method is used to construct p - ubi :: lp1 - fft :: 35s clones . the constructs for photosynthetic - regulation of expression of fructosyltransferases by the ubi promoter sequences are outlined below . the constructs for regulation of expression of fructosyltransferases under the control of the enhanced cauliflower mosaic virus ( camv ) 35s 2 promoter ( kay , et al ., 1987 ), are described in a previous section and are outlined below . ppzp200 - 35s 2 :: lp6g - fft :: tarbcs ppzp200 - 35s 2 :: lp1 - sst :: tarbcs ppzp200 - 35s 2 ::( lp1 - fft / lp6 - sft / lp - sst ):: tarbcs ppzp200 - 35s 2 :: lp1 - sst — 6g - fft :: tarbcs ft fusion1 and 3 promoters with tissue - specificity are desirable to drive expression of transgenes in crops to target accumulation in particular tissues / organs and to avoid unwanted expression elsewhere . examples of different promoters to drive transgene expression for different objectives are presented in table 5 . representative examples of promoters for constitutive ( ubi , ( camv ) 35s 2 , rubq2 , osact1 ), tuber and stolon specific ( cathlnh ), stress regulated ( atrd29a ) and sucrose responsive ( 14 - 3 - 3 protein family 16r ) linked to ft fusions are presented in fig4 - 48 , respectively . several photosynthetic promoters have been shown to be strong regulators of expression of transgenes in light - responsive tissues . advantages of photosynthetic promoters for expressing fructan biosynthesis genes include that they are active in the large group of cells of the leaves and upper part of the stems which accounts the majority of the plants biomass . they are not constitutively expressed , however their expression pattern temporally and spatially overlaps with sucrose accumulation . the following vectors are transformed singly or in groups ( double and triple ) to assess synergistic responses of co - expression required for the generation of low and high dp fructans . pdest - tarbcs :: lp1 - sst :: tarbcs pbs - lprbcs :: lp1 - sst :: lpft4 p - ubi :: lp1 - sst :: 35s ppzp200 - 35s 2 :: lp1 - sst :: tarbcs pdest - tarbcs :: lp6g - fft :: tarbcs pbs - lpcab :: lp6g - fft :: lpft4 p - ubi :: lp6g - fft :: 35s ppzp200 - 35s 2 :: lp6g - fft :: tarbcs pdest - tarbcs ::( lp1 - fft / lp6 - sft / lp - sst ):: tarbcs p - ubi ::( lp1 - fft / lp6 - sft / lp - sst ):: 35s ppzp200 - 35s 2 ::( lp1 - fft / lp6 - sft / lp - sst ):: tarbcs to make comparisons with the transcriptional co - transformations as indicated above , translational co - transformation experiments are also conducted with the ft fusion vectors that have previously been discussed and are indicated below . pdest - tarbcs :: lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft :: tarbcs ft fusion1 and 3 pbs - lprbcs :: lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft :: lpft4 ft fusion1 and 3 ppzp200 - 35s 2 :: lp1 - sst — 6g - fft :: tarbcs ft fusion1 and 3 the genetic constructs of the present invention may be introduced into plant cells by transduction , transfection , transformation or gene targeting . such techniques include agrobacterium - mediated introduction , electroporation of tissues , cells and protoplasts , protoplast fusion , injection into reproductive organs , injection into immature embryos and high velocity projectile introduction to cells , tissues , calli , immature and mature embryos , microinjection into cells and protoplasts , polyethylene glycol mediated direct gene transfer into protoplasts , biolistic transformation , whiskers transformation and combinations thereof . the choice of technique depends largely on the type of plant to be transformed and the appropriate vector for the method chosen are used . cells incorporating the genetic constructs of the present invention may be selected , as directed by the vectors used , and then cultured in an appropriate medium to regenerate transformed plants , using techniques well established . the resulting plants may be reproduced , either sexually or asexually , to produce successive generations of transformed plants . the present invention may be applied to a variety of plants , including monocotyledons [ such as wheat , corn or maize , rice , barley , sorghum , sugarcane , oats , rye , grasses ( e . g . forage , turf and bioenergy grasses including perennial ryegrass , tall fescue , italian ryegrass , red fescue , reed canary - grass , big bluestem , cordgrass , napiergrass , switchgrass , wildrye , wild sugarcane , miscanthus , paspalum )], dicotyledons [ such as arabidopsis , tobacco , soybean , canola , alfalfa , cotton , potato , tomato , tobacco , clovers ( e . g . white clover , red clover , subterranean clover ), vegetable brassicas , lettuce , spinach ] and gymnosperms . in particular , invention may be applied to cereals such as triticum aestivum ( wheat ), c3 grasses containing native fructans such as lolium perenne ( ryegrass ) and lolium arundinaceum ( tall fescue ), as well as paspalum dilatatum ( paspalum ) a c4 perennial apomitic grass with no native fructans . the invention may also be applied to dicots such as arabidopsis thaliana , brassica napus ( canola ), nicotiana benthamiana ( tobacco ) and trifolium repens ( white clover ). biolistic transformation of monocots eg wheat , perennial ryegrass , tall fescue and paspalum the candidate genes are inserted into the plant genome by particle bombardment using whole plasmids so vector backbone sequences may also be incorporated into the genome . transgenic plant tissues are recovered by survival on tissue culture media containing a selective agent . agrobacterium - mediated transformation of dicots eg arabidopsis , tobacco , canola and white clover agrobacterium - mediated transformation takes advantage of the natural pathogenic activity of the soil bacterium agrobacterium tumefaciens . a . tumefaciens infects the roots & amp ; stems of dicotyledonous plants resulting in infection directed by the tumor inducing ( ti ) plasmid by the insertion of specific genes ( t - dna ) into the genome of infected plant cells . the candidate genes were inserted into the plant genome by agrobacterium - mediated transformation using binary vectors based on the ti plasmids . biolistic co - transformation of perennial ryegrass with the vectors containing the tarbcs and lprbcs regulatory sequences , driving the expression of individual fructan genes or as a ft translational fusion , and the pach1 vector for hygromycin resistance was conducted on embryogenic calli for perennial ryegrass . the pach1 vector was previously constructed and has been used successfully in plant transformation experiments ( bilang , et al ., 1991 ; spangenberg , et al ., 1995a ; spangenberg , et al ., 1995b ; ye , et al ., 1997 ; bai , et al ., 2001 ). the gus marker gene was also cloned as a positive control . table 6 summarises the transformation and molecular analysis for the generation of these lines . “ cassette dna ” containing l . perenne sequences was excised from the plasmid vectors pbs - lprbcs :: lp1 - sst :: lpft4 , pbs - lpcab :: lp6g - fft :: lpft4 and pbs - lprbcs :: lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft :: lpft4 ( fig2 , 30 and 34 respectively ) using the ecor v restriction endonuclease . following agarose gel electrophoresis , the resulting dna fragment was purified from the agarose gel prior to being used for plant transformation to produce dna without vector backbone sequences . the pach1 vector previously constructed and used successfully in plant transformation experiments was also digested with restriction enzymes to produce a dna fragment for the expression of the selectable marker only . biolistic co - transformation of perennial ryegrass with the vectors containing the l . perenne regulatory sequences , driving the expression of individual fructan genes or as a translational ft fusion , and the pach1 expression cassette for hygromycin resistance was conducted on embryogenic calli for perennial ryegrass . table 7 summarises the transformation and molecular analysis for the generation of these lines . during the regeneration of the transgenic perennial ryegrass plants differences in growth phenotypes were noticed between the lines . both the tissue culture regenerants and corresponding soil grown plants from both of the ft fusion 1 and ft fusion 3 transgenic plants showed a superior growth performance phenotype compared to the transgenic plants containing either a single fructan biosynthesis gene or control plants containing only the selectable marker , hph . phenotypic examples of transgenic perennial ryegrass plants in tissue culture are displayed for the tarbcs promoter and lprbcs ft fusion transgenics in fig4 - 51 . the plants showing the superior growth performance phenotype were confirmed to contain the ft gene of interest . the superior growth performance phenotype of the transgenic ft fusion 1 and ft fusion 3 plants was first observed during the early stages of plant regeneration conducted on plates . specifically just 12 days after incubation under lights the transgenic calli showed further developed green shoots . the fast growth rate of the ft fusion transgenic plants became more evident 22 days after transferring to rooting media . transgenic plants containing either ft fusion 1 or ft fusion 3 constructs showed clearly greater numbers of tillers . in addition , the ft fusion transgenic plants consistently showed a higher tiller density per plant compared to control plants in vitro ( fig4 - 49 ). following transfer to soil and propagation under glasshouse conditions more specific differences were observed between the ft fusion 1 and ft fusion 3 lines . even though both ft fusion plants displayed enhanced growth performance , ft fusion 1 plants had longer , thicker and a slightly darker green leaf blades . also the plants were physically more robust with thicker leaf sheaths and leaf blades . ft fusion 3 lines continued to grow faster than the other control plants with longer leaf blades and more vigorous tiller growth , but the leaf morphology was more similar to wild - type . an increase in root biomass was also observed in both ft fusion 1 and ft fusion 3 soil grown transgenic perennial ryegrass plants ( fig5 ). the control transgenic plants harbouring either the lp1 - sst or lp6g - fft as single genes did not show the level of increased growth rate that was observed in the ft fusion 1 and 3 transgenic plants . their appearance is similar to each other , although some developed more vigorously than the transgenic plants containing either gus or hph ( fig5 ). a similar phenotype to that observed in the glasshouse was also observed in the field . the ft fusion transgenic plants showed a more vigorous growth phenotype with increased number of tillers and longer leaf blades ( fig5 ). the field trial transgenic plants were analysed for biomass production ( table 8 ). biomass was assessed , as outlined in fig5 , ranging from a score of 1 having the least biomass to 5 having the most . leaf blades from individual plants were cut and hand sectioned ( fig5 ). obvious differences seen were in the amount of chloroplasts in each cell , and the number of cells with chloroplasts : being more in both of the transgenic ft fusion plants than in the control plants . in addition , chloroplasts were present in cells located on the abaxial side ( lower part of the leaf ) of transgenic plants , despite that both plants were grown under the same light conditions in the growth room . sometimes it was observed that control plants produced more chloroplasts in mesophyll cells located on the adaxial side ( upper side which face the light source ) than on the abaxial side , whereas the transgenic plants most often produced near - equal number of chloroplasts on both sides . biochemical analysis by hpaec of water soluble carbohydrates extracted from independent transformants harbouring the tarbcs :: lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft :: tarbcs ft fusion 1 , tarbcs :: lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft :: tarbcs ft fusion 3 , tarbcs :: lp1 - sst :: tarbcs , tarbcs :: lp6g - fft :: tarbcs , and two control lines ( hph only ) showed that the ft fusion 1 and ft fusion 3 transgenic plants contained significantly higher levels of total fructans ( fig5 ), showing up to 2 . 5 fold increase over the control lines ( fig5 ). in addition , the levels of 1 - kestose were up to 4 times higher in ft fusion i lines ( up to 3 . 7 pg / mg of dw , total fructans : 20 . 5 pg / mg of dw and sucrose 51 . 2 pg / mg of dw . ), and 3 times higher in ft fusion 3 lines ( 2 . 4 pg / mg of dw , total fructans : 26 . 0 pg / mg of dw and sucrose 49 . 8 pg / mg of dw ) compared to the hph controls ( fig5 a - b ). in the tarbcs :: lp1 - sst :: tarbcs plants 1 - kestose has increased up to 2 . 9 pg / mg of dw ( a 3 - fold increase ) whereas total fructan content only increased 0 . 5 fold to 14 pg / mg of dw . in contrast 1 - kestose levels in the tarbcs :: lp6g - fft :: tarbcs transgenic plant lines showed marginal increases up to 1 . 6 pg / mg of dw for 1 - kestose ( up to 0 . 5 fold ) and only one line showed a small increase in total fructans to 10 pg / mg of dw ( fig5 c - d and 56 c - d ). analysis of sucrose contents of all the lines revealed that some of the high fructan lines also showed an increase in total sucrose content ( fig5 ). the transgenic perennial ryegrass was also evaluated under field conditions for total fructan level and composition ( fig5 & amp ; 59 ) and transgene expression ( fig6 c ). the control and transgenic perennial ryegrass plants were sampled repeatedly throughout the field trial growing season . biochemical analysis of wild - type controls and independent transformants was conducted to show the level of total fructan per plant . fig5 illustrates fructan levels in milligrams ( mg ) per gram ( g ) of dry weight ( dw ) transgenic and wild - type field grown whole tillers and leaf blades . multiple individual ft fusion and lprbcs :: lp1 - sst transgenic plants were identified with fructan concentrations between 80 to 120 percent higher than the corresponding the wild - type ( wt ) control plants in both whole tiller and leaf blade samples ( fig5 ). representative results on the composition of fructans in leaf blades of three lprbcs :: lp1 - sst transgenic perennial ryegrass plants as compared to wild - type controls are shown in fig5 . the results indicate an increased level of low dp fructans in transgenic plants expressing lprbcs :: lp1 - sst ( box 1 , fig5 ). transgene expression was detected in representative lprbcs ft fusion and lprbcs :: lp1sst transgenic perennial ryegrass plants analysed by quantitative reverse transcription pcr ( qrt - pcr ) ( fig6 ). in order to quantify the increase in biomass single tillers were separated from each of the t 0 transgenic lines and control lines , and propagated in potting mix under glasshouse conditions . after 7 weeks and 12 weeks each plant was analysed for plant height , leaf blade width and total tiller number ( fig6 and 62 ). after 7 weeks the control plants showed an average height of 24 cm , the average leaf width was 2 . 5 mm , and each plant had an average of two tillers . the transgenic ft fusion 1 and fusion 3 lines , however , showed up to an 80 % increase in plant height ( 43 cm ), up to 60 % increase in leaf width ( 4 mm ), and up to 3 fold increase in tiller number ( 6 tillers ). after 12 weeks the control plants were , on average , 43 cm tall , leaf blades width was 3 . 5 mm , with 5 tillers per plant produced . over the same period of time the transgenic ft fusion 1 and fusion 3 plants had grown up to 62 cm tall ( 43 % increase compared to controls ). the leaf width was up to 6 mm ( 70 % increase ) and the maximum number of tillers observed was 16 per plant ( 220 % increase ) ( fig6 ). characterisation of transgenic lxr ® and transgenic ft fusion plus lxr ® perennial ryegrass plants co - transformation of the ft fusion and lxr ® technology produced an enhanced growth phenotype . plants grown under glasshouse conditions showed an increased number of tillers and an enhanced root biomass compared to control and lxr ® alone transgenic plants ( fig6 ). dry weight experiments of plant tissue were conducted to establish the biomass of individual ft fusion and lxr ® transgenic plants . transgenic perennial ryegrass plants grown under glasshouse conditions were trimmed 5 mm below the lowest leaf sheath at the 10 tiller stage . after 6 weeks all plant biomass from a height of 5 cm above the soil level was harvested into paper bags , oven - dried and weighed on a precision balance . the control was calculated as the average of five independent ‘ gene of interest ’ negative ( goi - ve ) plants . both ft fusion and ft fusion plus lxr ® transgenic plants produced plants with a dry weight higher ( up to two fold ) than the average level for the control ( fig6 ). biochemical analysis of goi - ve controls and independent transformants was also conducted to show levels of total fructan per plant . fructan levels in the leaf blades of ft fusion alone , as well as ft fusion plus lxr ® transgenic plants showed up to a six fold increase compared to the average value of the control plants ( fig6 ). transformation of tall fescue grass with the vectors containing the l . perenne regulatory sequences , driving the ft translational fusion , and the pach1 expression cassette for hygromycin resistance was conducted . transgenic tall fescue plants grown under glasshouse conditions showed an increased number of tillers and an enhanced root biomass compared to control transgenic plants ( fig6 ). characterisation of transgenic lxr ® and transgenic ft fusion plus lxr ® tall fescue plants transgenic tall fescue ( lolium arundinaceum cv jesup s3 ) plants expressing lprbcs ft fusion 3 alone , tarbcs ft fusion 3 alone , as well as tarbcs ft fusion 3 plus lxr ® technology ( atmyb32 :: ipt ) together have been produced . table 9 summarises the transformation and molecular analysis for the generation of these lines . dry weight experiments of plant tissue were conducted to establish the biomass of individual transgenic plants . transgenic tall fescue plants grown under glasshouse conditions were trimmed 5 mm below the lowest leaf sheath at the 5 tiller stage . after 6 weeks all plant biomass from a height of 5 cm above the soil level was harvested into paper bags , oven - dried and weighed on a precision balance . the control was calculated as the average of five independent goi - ve plants . transgenic ft fusion alone and ft fusion plus lxr ® tall fescue plants both showed a two fold increase in herbage dry weight as compared to the average value of the control plants ( fig6 ). tiller number experiments were also conducted to establish the growth vigour of individual transgenic plants . both tall fescue transgenic and goi - ve control plants , at the 5 tiller stage , were trimmed as mentioned above and left growing under glasshouse conditions for 6 weeks before tiller numbers were counted . the tiller number in the control represents the average tiller number obtained from five independent goi - ve plants . transgenic lines of ft fusion alone and ft fusion plus lxr ® tall fescue plants showed up to a two fold increase in tiller number compared to the average value of the control plants ( fig6 ). transgenic tall fescue plants ( 5 tillers ) were trimmed ( as indicated above ) and grown under glasshouse conditions for 6 weeks when leaf blades were collected and freeze - dried for fructan analysis . the average fructan level in controls represents data obtained from five independent goi - ve plants . transgenic lines of ft fusion tall fescue plants show a dramatic increase ( between three to five fold ) in fructan accumulation in leaf blades compared to the average fructan level in goi - ve control plants ( fig6 ). transformation of light - regulated promoter expressing single fructan genes or the ft translational fusion biolistic co - transformation of wheat with the vectors containing the photosynthetic promoter regulatory sequences , driving the expression of individual fructan genes or as a translational ft fusion , and a vector containing a chimeric ubi :: bar :: nos selectable marker gene for glufosinate resistance ( pach25 ) was conducted on wheat embryogenic calli . a transformation vector has been constructed for biolistic transformation of wheat containing the chimeric atmyb32 :: ipt :: 35s with a chimeric ubi :: bar :: nos selectable marker gene for glufosinate resistance . genetic transformation of wheat with lxr ® vector was based on biolistic transformation of embryogenic calli from triticum aestivum l bobwhite 26 wheat line as described in international patent application pct / au01 / 01092 . the candidate gene was inserted into the wheat genome by particle bombardment using whole plasmids so vector backbone sequences may also be incorporated into the genome . transgenic plant tissues were recovered by survival on tissue culture media containing a selective agent . production of transgenic plants for re - programmed fructan biosynthesis in photosynthetic cells and extended life of photosynthetic cells using the methods outlined above transgenic plants were generated that contain both fructan biosynthetic genes driven by light - regulated promoters and the lxr ® technology for re - programmed fructan biosynthesis in photosynthetic cells and extended life of photosynthetic cells . table 8 summarises the transformation and molecular analysis for the generation of these transgenic plants . during the regeneration of the transgenic wheat plants differences in in vitro growth phenotypes were noticed . the tissue culture regenerants from both of the ft fusion 1 and ft fusion 3 transgenic plants showed a superior vigour phenotype compared to control plants . the superior growth phenotype of the transgenic ft fusion 1 and ft fusion 3 plants was first observed during the early stages of in vitro plant regeneration conducted on tissue culture plates . following biolistic transformation calli were kept for two weeks on tissue culture plates in the dark and then transferred to light conditions . approximately 6 weeks after incubation under light conditions the transformed calli showed more fully developed green shoots and the roots of the ft fusion transgenic regenerants grew at an extremely advanced rate ( fig7 ). the fast growth rate of the ft fusion transgenic plants became more evident after transferring to rooting media . ft fusion transgenic plants showed an obvious early increase in tiller number at around 2 months as compared to null controls ( up to 5 tillers compare to one tiller observed in control plants ). the width of the leaves of the some of the plants was 4 - 5 mm compare to control plants 2 - 3 mm . in addition , the ft fusion transgenics consistently showed a higher tiller density per plant compared to control lines ( fig7 ). following transfer to soil and propagation under glasshouse conditions the transgenic wheat plants that contain the ft fusion constructs continued to show an increase in tiller number as compared to control plants ( fig7 ). the transgenic wheat plants that contain the lxr ® technology construct showed an increase in tiller number as compared to control plants under glasshouse conditions ( fig7 a ). they also showed and increase of photosynthetic tissue after 35 days under glasshouse conditions ( fig7 b ). co - transformation of the ft fusion construct and lxr ® technology produced an enhanced growth phenotype of glasshouse grown plants . some of the plants also showed an obvious late senescence ( at 40 days ) under glasshouse conditions ( fig7 ). transgenic wheat plants expressing the ft fusion construct and the ft fusion construct plus lxr ® also showed an enhanced level of fructans in leaves and an increased number of tillers as compared to control plants under glasshouse conditions ( fig7 ). biochemical analysis of goi - ve controls , ft fusion , as well as ft fusion plus lxr ® independent t 1 wheat transformants , grown under glass house conditions , was conducted to show levels of total fructan per plant . a dramatic increase in fructan level ( up to five fold ) was detected for both transgenic lines ( fig7 ). transformation of ipt gene under control of atmyb32 promoter for delayed leaf senescence genetic transformation of paspalum dilatatum ( apomictic dallisgrass ) was based on biolistic transformation as described in international patent application pct / au01 / 01092 . the candidate gene expression construct was inserted into the paspalum dilatatum genome by particle bombardment using whole plasmids so vector backbone sequences may also be incorporated into the genome . transgenic plant tissues were recovered by survival on tissue culture media containing a selective agent . transformation of ft translational fusion under control of light - regulated promoter for engineering fructan biosynthesis in photosynthetic cells genetic transformation of paspalum dilatatum with photosynthetic regulated fructan biosynthesis genes is conducted using the same method as was used to produce the lxr ® transgenic paspalum dilatatum plants . transgenic paspalum dilatatum plants expressing the ipt gene under control of the atmyb32 promoter revealed an enhanced biomass accumulation . during the regeneration of the putative transgenic p . dilatatum plants differences in growth phenotypes were noticed showing a superior growth phenotype compared to control plants . the distinctive growth phenotype may be used as a selection tool for identifying transformed plants in combination with co - transformed vectors . binary vectors containing the ft fusion and lxr ® technology have been generated for agrobacterium - mediated transformation of dicot plants . transformation vectors also contained a chimeric 35s :: nptii :: 35 s or 35s :: hph :: 35s as selectable marker genes . transgenic white clover ( trifolium repens ) and arabidopsis thaliana plants expressing lxr ® technology alone ( atmyb3 :: ipt ), atrbcs :: lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft :: 35s ft fusion alone , as well as lxr ® technology and the atrbcs :: lp1 - sst_lp6g - fft :: 35s ft fusion together have been produced ( fig7 and 80 ). tables 11 and 12 summarise the transformation and molecular analysis for the generation of these lines , respectively . quantitative rt - pcr was used to confirm transformants and detect expression levels of the atrbcs ft fusion in selected lines ( fig7 ). these lines , showing expression of the transgene also demonstrated an increased level of fructans ( fig6 b ). no expression was detected in control lines ( fig7 ). biochemical analysis by hpaec of water soluble carbohydrates extracted from independent transformants expressing atrbcs ft fusion alone , atrbcs ft fusion plus lxr ® and goi - ve control lines was conducted to show levels of total fructans per plant . atrbcs ft fusion and atrbcs ft fusion plus lxr ® transgenic lines showed a two fold increase of fructan accumulation in leaves higher than that observed in the controls ( fig7 ). quantitative rt - pcr was used to confirm transformants and detect expression levels of the atrbcs ft fusion in selected lines ( fig8 ). transgenic t 2 ft fusion arabidopsis plants grown in soil are shown in fig8 . gene of interest negative plants ( goi - ve ) are also presented and show no phenotypic difference to ft fusion transgenic plants shown to express the transgene . binary vectors were also used for agrobacterium - mediated transformation of brassica napus ( canola ) hypocotyl segments ( patent pct / au01 / 01092 ). a functionally active fragment of the atmyb32 promoter was used to drive ipt expression in transgenic white clover and canola plants as described in international patent application pct / au01 / 01092 . outcomes observed from the lxr ® technology in dicot plants have been delayed leaf senescence ; enhanced leaf growth dynamics ; reduced stolon death ; enhanced biomass production ; increased cumulative green leaf area ; increased seed yield ; enhanced drought tolerance ; increased shading tolerance ; enhanced herbage quality reflected by enhanced ruminal fermentation kinetics and higher dry matter digestibility . the regulation of developmental senescence may be assessed by simulating and initiating artificial aging of detached leaves in vitro on moist filter paper . incubation of detached leaves in darkness is highly effective in inducing senescence associated genes ( sags ), leaf yellowing and chlorophyll loss ( weaver and amasino , 2001 ). fig8 demonstrates detached senescence assay data associated with expression of the ipt gene under control of one of two functionally active fragments of the atmyb32 promoter in white clover and canola . the transgenic plants displayed a significant delay of leaf senescence as compared to leaves from control plants 7 - 20 days following detachment . production of transgenic plants for re - programming fructan biosynthesis in photosynthetic cells and for extended life of these photosynthetic cells using the methods outlined above transgenic plants have been generated that contain both , fructan biosynthetic genes ( ft including ft fusion genes ) under control of light - regulated , photosynthetic promoters for re - programming fructan biosynthesis in photosynthetic cells and lxr ® technology through co - expression of ipt gene driven by the atmyb32 promoter for extending life of the photosynthetic cells . use of the distinctive growth phenotype as a selection tool to identify transgenic plants in vitro the superior growth phenotype of the transgenic ft fusion 1 or ft fusion 3 plants was observed in all plant types to which it was transformed ( eg perennial ryegrass and wheat ). in both ryegrass and wheat it was first observed during the early stages of plant regeneration conducted in plates . in the experiments conducted without antibiotic selection , strong shoot induction has been observed at the stage when after bombardment the calli have been kept in dark conditions for 8 weeks . ( fig8 a - c ). after transferring the plates to light conditions ( 7 days after transfer ) strong shoot induction was observed in the transgenic plants and much lower level of shoot regeneration was detected in control plants ( fig8 d - f ). expression of the ft fusion under control of tarbcs or other photosynthetic , sucrose - regulated or constitutive promoters could be used as a selection tool for the identification of transformed plants at the tissue culture stage . expression of the ft fusion protein may be also driven by a set of promoters , which are active due to the high concentration of sucrose that exists in tissue culture medium , and much less active at the low sucrose levels present in soil - grown plants . this transgene may subsequently be segregated away from the transgenic plants in successive generations . the increased biomass of the transformed plants to be used as the selective agent should not require an antibiotic resistance marker for the selection process , enabling the production of a market ready product . analysis was carried out to assess the use of the distinctive growth phenotype to detect a positive transformation result in perennial ryegrass . embryogenic perennial ryegrass calli flp410 - 20 were bombarded with gold particles covered in tarbcs ft fusion 1 alone , tarbcs ft fusion 3 alone , atmyb32 :: ipt ( lxr ®) alone , as well as tarbcs ft fusion 1 plus lxr ® vectors without any selectable marker . control calli were bombarded just with golden particles . plants were regenerated without antibiotic selection and kept 2 weeks under dark conditions and then transferred to light conditions ( 16 / 8 hr light / dark photo - period ). the plant &# 39 ; s growth was examined prior to transfer to light and weekly for five weeks under light conditions . calli were kept under progressively starving conditions on the same plate for five weeks ( callus induction medium : ms full strength + 250 mg / l l - asparagine + 2 . 5 mg / l 2 , 4 - d + 6 % sucrose + 0 . 7 % agar ). control plant growth was initiated during the first two to three weeks under light conditions but slowed significantly four and five weeks later ( fig8 ). some calli bombarded with tarbcs ft fusion vectors showed more vigorous growth during the first two to three weeks and continued growing ( with reduced rate ) at weeks four and five ( fig8 ). no obvious differences were observed for lxr ® alone bombarded calli . co - transformation with tarbcs ft fusion 1 plus lxr ® vectors showed an intermediate phenotype between the control and the tarbcs ft fusion 1 vector alone ( fig8 ). molecular analysis was undertaken to detect the presence of the tarbcs ft fusion transgenes using qrt - pcr in putative transgenic lines . ft fusion transgenics showed between 60 % and 70 % transformation and selection efficiency without antibiotics . no lxr alone transgenic plants showed presence of the transgene . co - transformation of tarbcs ft fusion and lxr showed an 11 % efficiency of co - transformation and selection ( fig8 ). a method of co - transformation of ft fusions and lxr ® for positive selection to determine the co - transformation efficiency has been developed and is outlined below . initially , the co - transformation efficiency is determined for a variety of transformation events which include a vector containing an antibiotic selectable marker . these co - transformation events include : 1 . ft fusion regulated by a photosynthetic promoter + hph selectable marker 2 . lxr ® plus hph selectable marker 3 . ft fusion regulated by a photosynthetic promoter plus lxr ® plus hph selectable marker selection on antibiotic media for transgenics takes place and the presence of the transgene for each double or triple co - transformation event is determined , generating a co - transformation efficiency number for each event . a second round of co - transformation events also takes place without an antibiotic selectable marker on selection free media . these co - transformation events include : 1 . ft fusion regulated by a photosynthetic promoter + dsred marker 2 . lxr ® plus dsred marker 3 . ft fusion regulated by a photosynthetic promoter plus lxr ® plus dsred marker selection for increased growth rate of shoots and / or roots takes place and the presence of the transgene for each double or triple co - transformation event is determined . the presence of the dsred marker gene is easily determined by visualisation of fluorescence and helps determine the co - transformation efficiency for each of the transformation events . comparison of the co - transformation efficiencies determined with and without selectable marker aids in establishing the efficacy of using a superior phenotype as a selection tool . documents cited in this specification are for reference purposes only and their inclusion is not acknowledgment that they form part of the common general knowledge in the relevant art . altenbach , d ., et al . 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