Patent Application: US-14984802-A

Abstract:
the invention relates to modifications of biosynthesis key enzymes leading to essential amino acid accumulation in cells . a recombinant or isolated nucleic acid , or functional fragment thereof , encoding an enzyme dihydrodipicolinate synthase , or functional fragment thereof , having been provided with a mutation leading to the replacement of at least one single amino acid residue with a cysteine residue .

Description:
dna isolation , subcloning , restriction analysis and dna sequence analysis is performed using standard methods ( sambrook , j . et al . ( 1989 ) molecular cloning . a laboratory manual , cold spring harbor laboratory press ; ausubel , f . m . et al . ( 1994 ) current protocols in molecular biology , john wiley & amp ; sons ). for the isolation of the solanum tuberosum cv kardal gene encoding dihydrodipicolinate synthase ( dhps ) a cdna library of mrna prepared from young tubers was constructed in the vector λtriplex ( clotech ). a specific 600 basepairs dhps dna fragment for screening the cdna library via heterologous hybridisation was cloned by the reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction ( rt - pcr ) on total rna isolated from arabidopsis thaliana and subsequently ligated into vector pmosblue ( amersham ), resulting in paap15 . to this purpose synthetic oligonucleotides based on the sequence of the arabidopsis thaliana dhps gene were used ( vauterin & amp ; jacobs , 1994 ). a single plaque from the cdna hybridising to paap15 was selected and the 1190 basepairs dna insert completely sequenced ( fig2 a ). it was concluded to encode a dihydridipicolinate synthase . the dna fragment encompassing the complete coding sequence was cloned in the cloning vector pbluescript sk (+) ( stratagene ) via a pcr25 based strategy to enable the expression in escherichia coli of a β - galactosidase - dhps fusion protein under the control of a lac promoter . the resulting plasmid was designated paap57 . this gene construct was able to complement e . coli at997 ( yeh et al ., 1988 ), a dhps deficient strain , allowing it to grow on minimal medium in the absence of dl - α , ε - diaminopimelic acid . in order to create a feedback insensitive dhps , nucleotides in paap57 corresponding to the evolutionary conserved amino acid residue 134 ( asparagine ) were changed at random via a pcr - based approach ( quickchange site directed mutagenesis , stratagen ), resulting in a population of plasmids encoding dhps enzymes with different amino acids residues at position 134 . following transformation of e . coli at997 with this plasmid population , selection for feedback insensitivity was done in the presence of 1 mm of the lysine analogue s -( 2 - aminoethyl )- l - cysteine ( aec ). several aec resistant colonies were picked and the dhps coding region of their plasmid directing aec resistance sequenced ( fig2 b ). the change of aac into either tgt or tgc resulted in the corresponding change of the asparagine residue at dhps position 134 into a cysteine residue . the mutant dhps encoding dna fragment ( designated dhps - 134nc1 ) was used for the expression in potato plants . the chimeric gene containing the mutant dhps gene was constructed by subcloning dhps cdna from the ptriplex vector ( paap42 ) first in pcr - script sk (+) ( paap55 ) and from this vector as a xbai - eco ri fragment in the pbluescript sk vector digested with xbai - ecor ( paap57 ). with this clone the mutagenesis was performed , resulting in clone paap57 - 134nc1 . at the 5 ′ end the mutated dhps cdna was fused to a hindiii - sali fragment of the 800 bp long gbss promoter fragment ( visser et al . ibid ). downstream of the mutant dhps sequence the termination signal of the nopaline synthase gene from agrobacterium tumefaciens was inserted ( greve , h . d . et al . ( 1983 ) j . mol . appl . genet . 1 : 499 - 511 ) as an ssti - ecori fragment . the complete chimeric gene was subcloned into the hindii - ecori sites of pbinplus ( van engelen , f . a . et al . ( 1995 ) transgenic research 4 : 288 - 290 ) ( paap105 , fig3 ). the binary vector paap105 was used for freeze - thaw transformation of agrobacterium tumefaciens strain aglo ( höfgen , r . and willmitzer , l . ( 1988 ) nucl . acids res . 16 : 9877 ). transformed aglo was subsequently used for inoculation of potato ( solanum tuberosum , variety kardal ) stem explants as described by visser ( visser , r . g . f . ( 1991 ) plant tissue culture manual b5 ( ed . by k . lindsey ): 1 - 9 , kluwer acad . publishers , the netherlands ). after shoot and root regeneration on kanamycin - containing media plants were put in soil and transferred to the greenhouse . plants regenerated ( on kanamycin - free media ) from stem explants treated with the agrobacterium strain aglo lacking a binary vector served as a control . in stead of selection of transformed plant cells on kanamycine , as described by visser ( visser , r . g . f . ( 1991 ) in : k . lindsey ( ed ) plant tissue culture manual b5 : 1 - 9 , kluwer acad publishers ) mentioned above ( 4 . 1 ), the transformed plant cells containing a mutant dhps gene can also be selected on the lysine analogue aec . after inoculation of for example potato stem explants with the transformed ( agi 0 ) strain , explants are in general first cultured on medium without aec . after a short period , for example 12 - 20 , such as 16 , days they are transferred to medium with 0 . 1 mm aec and a sufficient concentration ( e . g . 5 %) sucrose . when the first primordia are visible the explants are transferred to 0 . 025 mm aec and sucrose . root induction is performed in the absence of aec / sucrose - selection . in order to induce in vitro tuberisation , nodal cuttings ( about 4 - 5 cm long ) of transformed potato plantlets are placed vertically in solid murashige and skoog medium ( murashige , t . and skoog , f . ( 1962 ) physiol . plant . 15 : 473 - 497 ) supplemented with 10 % ( w / v ) sucrose , 5 tm bap . the cultures are maintained at 19 ° c . in the dark . after 14 days microtubers of 4 mm in diameter are harvested and analysed for free lysine and threonine content , and for ak and dhps activity . the protein content and the protein composition are analysed as described below . 4 . 4 . selection of transformed shoots with high dhps * expression on aminoethylcysteine ( aec ) in stead of selection on kanamycin after transformation with the paap105 construct by agrobacterium inoculation ( see example 4 . 1 ), the transformed shoots can be selected by rooting on a medium containing a lysine analogue . the mutant dhps gene can be used as a selection marker because plant cells with a high content of lysine can grow on toxic lysine analogues , such as aminoethylcysteine ( aec ). due to the feedback - insensitivity and resulting high endogenous lysine levels , the toxic analogue is diluted out and cannot bind to the lysine binding site in the mutant enzyme . after transformation of potato stem explants ( see 4 . 1 ) with the paap105 containing agrobacterium strain , the explants were put on shoot regeneration medium without kanamycin . when shoots appeared they were either put directly on rooting medium containing 0 . 06 mm aec with 50 g / l sucrose ( for induction of the gbss promoter ), or were rooted first on rooting medium without aec and afterwards were rooted again on medium containing 0 . 06 mm aec and 50 g / l sucrose . shoots that were able to root on this concentration aec were cut again for rooting on medium containing 0 . 1 mm aec and 50 g / l sucrose . the criteria for rooting resistance on 0 . 06 and 0 . 1 mm aec are the following : the transformation frequency leading to transgenic plants with eventually high lysine levels in the tubers is about 0 . 5 %. embryogenic suspension cultures from different lolium perenne cultivars , a . o . the cultivars moronda and aurora , are initiated directly from mature , seed - derived embryos or from embryogenic callus cultures obtained from immature inflorescence segments , essentially as described by creemers - molenaar et al ., plant science 63 : 167 - 176 ( 1989 ). for the direct approach , seeds are sterilized in 10 % hypochlorite , rinsed and soaked for two days in sterile tap water and sterilized for a second time . after rinsing thoroughly , mature embryos are dissected from 40 seeds , chopped and transferred to 5 ml of ms10 medium ( i . e . murashige and skoog basal salts and vitamins supplemented with 10 mg / l 2 , 4 - d and 3 % sucrose at ph 5 . 8 ) in a 60 ml plastic specimen container ( thovadex ). this in several replicates . embryogenic callus is induced on immature inflorescence segments of greenhouse grown plants after sterilization with 5 % hypochlorite and rinsing with sterile water . the basal parts of the inflorescences are cut into 2 segments of 1 - 2 mm long and placed on mst5 medium ( i . e . ms basal salts and vitamins supplemented with 0 . 4 mg / l (= extra ) thiamin - hcl , 5 mg / l 2 , 4 - d and 3 % sucrose ) solidified with 0 . 8 % daichin agar . culture is in the dark at 25 ° c . after 4 - 8 weeks compact , embryogenic callus is excised from the explants of 2 - 5 plants ( i . e . genotypes ). the calli are mixed , chopped with a scalpel and transferred in 0 . 1 g fw aliquots to 5 ml of ms10 in specimen containers . from this point on , the cultures of both origins are treated identically . the cultures are incubated on a rotary shaker ( 140 revs ./ min .) in continuous indirect light ( 200 - 400 lux ) at 25 ° c . after 10 days the medium is replaced with ms5 (= as ms10 but with 5 mg / l 2 , 4 - d ). once a week 2 ml of fresh medium is added to the cultures until a final volume of 15 ml is reached . subsequently , the cultures are transferred to new 190 ml transparent , polystyrene containers ( greiner ) and 5 ml fresh medium is added . for further experimentation well - proliferating , finely - dispersed cultures are selected and maintained by weekly subculturing 2 . 5 g fw material in 20 ml fresh ms5 . incubation is in the dark under continuous shaking at 120 revs ./ min . at 25 ° c . the regeneration potential of the cultures is determined by placing 0 . 5 - 1 . 0 g fw material on solid ms0 ( 0 mg / l 2 , 4 - d ; 0 . 8 % agar ). after culturing in the dark at 25 ° c . for the first 2 weeks the calli are placed in dimmed light ( 500 - 1000 lux ) for 16 hours / day for the next 2 weeks . finally after transfer to fresh ms0 , they are placed in 4000 lux , 16 hours / day and the number of calli producing shoots is scored after 4 weeks . three days after subculture , 0 . 25 g fw callus material consisting of cells in log - phase , is evenly dispersed onto the surface of a 42 mm diameter whatman filter disc ( schleicher & amp ; schuell # 604 ). subsequently , the filters are moistened by the addition of 0 . 5 ml fresh culture medium and they are placed onto culture medium solidified with 0 . 2 % gelrite and left overnight at 25 ° c . in the dark . the next day the filters carrying the perennial ryegrass suspension material are used for biolistic gene transfer using the pds1000 - he particle gun ( biorad ). 0 . 375 mg gold particles with an average diameter of 1 μm were coated with 0 . 625 μg dna of plasmid paap205 , which is a derivative of the plasmid paap105 mentioned in example 3 lacking t - dna borders and with the nptii gene replaced by the hpt gene for selection of transgenic perennial ryegrass cells . for the coating , 50 μl (= 3 mg ) of washed particles are suspended thoroughly by vortexing . subsequently , 5 μl plasmid dna ( concentration 1 μg / μl ) and 50 μl 2 . 5m cacl 2 are added and vortexed for 10 seconds . then , 20 μl 0 . 1m free - base spermidine is added and mixed by vortexing for 2 seconds . the mixture is centrifuged for 5 seconds and the supernatant is removed , after which 250 μl ethanol 96 % is added followed by vortexing for 1 minute . after washing with ethanol once , the particles now coated with dna are resuspended in 60 μl ethanol 96 % and kept on ice until use . bombardment can be performed at pressures ranging from 1100 psi to 2200 psi , but in this example particularly a pressure of 1800 psi is used while the dish containing the filters is placed at a distance of 9 cm . after biolistics the filters are incubated on the culture medium in the dark at 25 ° c . for 24 hours before they are transferred to selection medium . for selection , the filters are first placed on culture medium mst5 solidified with 0 . 2 % gelrite containing 80 mg / l hygromycin ; after 1 week the filters are transferred to selection medium containing 150 mg / l hygromycin . so far , this is essentially as described earlier ( van der maas et al ., plant mol . biol . 24 : 401 - 405 [ 1994 ]). actively growing calli are individually transferred to fresh selection medium ( 150 hyg .) after 4 weeks . following this second round of selection surviving calli are placed on regeneration medium supplemented with 50 mg / l hygromycin . transgenic perennial ryegrass plants are obtained and collected after 8 weeks . they are maintained in tubes containing half strength mso ( creemers - molenaar et al ., plant science 57 : 165 - 172 [ 1988 ]) and subsequently characterized molecularly by pcr and southern hybridization analysis and biochemically by amino acid , enzyme activity and protein analysis as described in example 6 - 9 to confirm presence and expression of the newly introduced gene constructs . tissue ( 0 . 5 - 1 . 0 gram ) was homogenised with mortar and pestle in 2 ml 50 mm pi - buffer ( ph 7 . 0 ) containing 1 mm dithiothreitol . nor - leucine is added as an internal standard . free amino acids were partly purified by extraction with 5 ml of a water : chloroform : methanol mixture ( 3 : 5 : 12 ). water phase was collected and the remaining re - extracted twice . after concentration by lyophilisation to 3 ml , a 20 μl sample was analysed by hplc using a cation - exchange column with post - column ninhydrine derivatisation of the amino acids detected at 570 and 440 nm ( biochrom 20 , amersham pharmacia biotech ). fig4 shows the lysine levels as the percentage of the total amino acids in tubers in 27 untransformed potato plants and in 30 potato plants containing the mutated dhps gene construct paap105 . the lysine levels increase from 2 - 2 . 5 % in the control wild type tubers to a maximum percentage of 30 in the transformed tubers , resulting in lysine being a ‘ bulk ’ amino acid in stead of a ‘ low level ’ essential amino acid . microtubers or mature tubers were homogenised with mortar and pestle in an equal volume of cold 100 mm tris - hcl ph 7 . 5 containing 2 mm edta , 1 . 4 % sodium ascorbate , 1 mm phenylmethylsulphonilfluoride and 0 . 5 tg / ml leupeptin . following 5 min . centrifugation ( 16 , 000 g at 4 ° c .) the supernatant is collected . dhps activity was measured using the o - aminobenzaldehyde ( o - aba ) method of yugari and gilvarg ( yugari , y . and gilvarg , c . ( 1965 ) j . biol . chem . 240 : 4710 - 4716 ). as expected , aec sensitivity of transformed was reduced , when comparing the wild type and mutant dhps activity in respectively control ( untransformed ) and transformed potato tubers , the latter showed dhps acitivity even under increased levels of aec . genomic dna was isolated from potato tubers of plants grown in the green house . lyopholised tissue was ground in liquid nitrogen and added to 15 ml extraction buffer ( 100 mm tris . hcl , ph 8 , 500 mm nacl , 50 mm edta and 10 mm β - mercaptoethanol ) and 2 ml 10 % sds . after incubation at 65 ° c . for 20 min , 5 ml of 5m kac were added and incubated on ice for 15 min . after centrifugation , filtration of the supernatant , and precipitation with 15 ml iso - propanol , the pellet was resuspended in 400 μl te and treated with 1 μg rnase . the dna was subsequently purified with ctab ( n - cetyl - nnn tri - methylammonium bromide ) extraction by adding 400 ill of ctab buffer ( 200 mm tris - hcl ph 7 . 5 , 50 mm edta , 2 mm nacl and 2 % ctab ) and incubating at 65 0c for 15 min . after extraction with 800 μl chloroform / isoamyl alcohol 24 : 1 , the dna was precipitated with 800 μl iso - propanol . the pellet was washed with 70 % ethanol and resuspended in te . dna . after digestion with restriction enzymes , the dna was size - fractionated on an agarose gel and blotted onto hybond - n + ( amersham ). random - primer - labeled probe was derived from the dhps cdna ( from position 337 to 811 , fig2 ). filters were hybridised at 65 ° c . in 10 % dextran sulphate , 1 % sds and 1m nacl for 16 to 20 hr . and washed subsequently at 55 ° c . and 60 ° c . with 2 × ssc , 0 . 1 % sds , and at 65 ° c . with 0 . 1 × ssc , 0 . 1 % sds . total rna was isolated from potato tubers grown in the greenhouse according to the protocol described by ausubel et al . ( 1994 ). rna was size - fractionated on formaldehyde agarose gels and blotted onto hybond - n + ( amersham ). blots were briefly stained to ensure that equal amounts of rna were present . random - primer - labeled probe was derived from the dhps cdna ( from position 337 to 811 , fig2 ). filters were hybridised at 65 ° c . in 10 % dextran sulphate , 1 % sds and 1m nacl for 16 to 20 hr . and washed subsequently at 55 ° c . and 60 ° c . with 2 × ssc , 0 . 1 % sds , and at 65 ° c . with 0 . 1 × ssc , 0 . 1 % sds . a diagram of the aspartate family biosynthetic pathway . only the major key enzymes are indicated . curved arrows represent feedback inhibition by the end product amino acids dhps , dihydrodipicolinate synthase ; hsd , homoserine dehydrogenasse ; tdh , theonine dehydratase . ( a ) nucleic acid fragment encoding a dhps isolated from potato . the derived amino acid sequence is presented using the 1 - letter code . ( b ) nucleic acid sequence and derived amino acid sequence of a lysine binding domain of the mutated dhps ( dhps - 134nc .) schematic representation of the t - dna region of plasmid paap105 , encompassing a mutated dihydrodipicolinate coding region ( dhps ) under control of the granule bound starch synthase promoter ( p - gbss ) and as selection maker the neomycinephosphotransferase 11 coding region ( npt11 ) under control of the nopaline synthase promoter ( p - nos ); i - nos nopaline synthase transcription terminator . free lysine concentration ( micromol / g fresh weight ) of tubers from tubers derived from different , independent transformant or control plants . plants were grown in pots in the green house until maturity . after harvesting tubers were dried for one week before analysis . about 10 gram of tuber material was ground in 50 ml of a 1 mm dithiothreitol ( dtt ) solution . two ml of the resulting suspension was extracted with a menthanol : water : chloroform mixture ( 12 : 3 : 5 ). after concentration to 0 . 5 ml , 25 μl is used for analysis on a biochrom 20 ( amersham - phamacia ) lithium - based ionexchange amino acid analysis system . samples were spiked with l - norleucine before grinding , to allow corrections . genomic dna was isolated from several independent transformed potato plants and untransformed plants , and digested with either hincii or with a combination of hincii and bamhi . after separation and blotting , the dna fragments were hybridised with a radio - labelled dhps probe . the untransformed control plants ( c ) show only hybridisation of the endogenous dhps fragments . on top of those bands the transformed plants show one ( lane 7 ) or more extra hybridising bands ( e . g . lane 5 ) revealing the insertion of one or more copies of the gbss - dhps * construct . abbreviations : c , control plants ; m , molecular size marker . northern blot rna analysis of the tubers of several transformed potato plants . total rna was isolated from tubers of several transformed plants ( lanes 1 - 15 ) and from control untransformed plant ( lane c ). rna was separated by gel - electrophoresis and blotted on nylon . the blot was hybridised with a radio - labelled dhps dna probe . control rna from an untransformed plant shows hybridisation of the endogenous dhps rna ( lane c ). rna from several transformed plants show hybridisation which is equal to the background dhps hybridisation ( e . g . lanes 4 and 9 ). most of the transformed plants show a strong hybridisation to the expressed exogenous dhps * rna ( e . g . lanes 10 - 12 ). ausubel , f . m . et al . 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