Plasmid construction for genetic modification of dicotyledonous plants with a glycolate oxidizing pathway

Abstract

There are many kinds of dicotyledonous C 3 plants, which often release CO 2 fixed by photosynthesis and consume energy in photorespiration. In Escherichia coli, glycolate can be metabolized by an oxidation pathway that has some of the same compounds as dicotyledonous photorespiration. With the bacterial glycolate metabolism pathway, photorespiration of dicotyledonous plants is genetically modifed for less CO 2 release and more biomass. In this study, two plasmids involved in this modification were constructed for targeting two enzymes of the glycolate oxidizing pathway, glyoxylate carboli-gase and tartronic semialdehyde reductase, and glycolate dehydroge-nase in Arabidopsis thaliana mitochondria in this pathway. All three enzymes are located in chloroplast by transit peptide derived from Pisum sativum small unit of Rubisco. So far, some crops have been transformed by the two plasmids. Through transformation of the two plasmids, photosynthesis of dicotyledonous plants may be promoted more easily and release less CO 2 into the atmosphere. © FUNPEC-RP.