High fructan cereal plants

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11111498-B2
Application number	US-201715671970-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 8, 2017
Priority date	Jul 17, 2008
Publication date	Sep 7, 2021
Grant date	Sep 7, 2021

Abstract

The invention provides cereal plants having a high level of fructan useful for the production of a range of food, beverage, nutraceutical and pharmaceutical products. The invention provides methods of producing high-fructan products from plants modified to comprise a reduced level of an endogenous polypeptide with starch synthase activity, and products so produced. In some embodiments, plants are modified by introduction of an agent such as a nucleic acid molecule which down regulates endogenous starch synthase II gene expression.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of identifying a variety of wheat grain which has increased levels of fructan comprising:
(i) obtaining wheat grain of a mutant hexaploid wheat plant grown in a field,
wherein said wheat grain has a reduced level or activity of an endogenous starch synthase (SSII) polypeptide relative to grain from a wild-type wheat plant grown under the same environmental conditions as the mutant hexaploid wheat plant,
wherein said wheat grain is homozygous for null alleles of an SSII gene in each of the A, B, and D genomes, wherein the homozygous alleles of the SSII gene of one or more of the A, B, and/or D genome(s) comprises a single base-pair substitution, insertion, or deletion;

(ii) determining the amount of fructan in the wheat grain; and
(iii) if the wheat grain comprises at least 3% fructan as a percentage of the wheat grain weight, selecting the wheat grain.

Assignees

• Jenkins Colin Leslie Dow
• Clarke Bryan Charles
• Li Zhongyi
• Morell Matthew Kennedy
• Commw Scient Ind Res Org

Inventors

• Jenkins Colin Leslie Dow
• Clarke Bryan Charles
• Li Zhongyi
• Morell Matthew Kennedy

Classifications

• C12N15/8245 Primary

  involving modified carbohydrate or sugar alcohol metabolism, e.g. starch biosynthesis · CPC title

• A61P3/00

  Drugs for disorders of the metabolism (of the blood or the extracellular fluid A61P7/00) · CPC title

• G01N33/50

  Chemical analysis of biological material, e.g. blood, urine; Testing involving biospecific ligand binding methods; Immunological testing (measuring or testing processes involving enzymes or microorganisms, compositions or test papers therefor; processes for forming such compositions, condition responsive control in microbiological or enzymological processes C12Q) · CPC title

• G01N2400/38

  Heteroglycans, i.e. polysaccharides having more than one sugar residue in the main chain in either alternating or less regular sequence, e.g. gluco- or galactomannans, Konjac gum, Locust bean gum or Guar gum · CPC title

• A61P3/02

  Nutrients, e.g. vitamins, minerals · CPC title