Patent granted to Washington University
The present United States patent granted to Washington University discloses the transformation of dicot plants with an Agrobacterium vector having the cytokinin gene of the T-DNA region inactivated. According to the USPTO assignments database, this patent was exclusively licensed to Syngenta.
In a wildtype T-DNA of a Ti plasmid, the genes encoding phytohormones are responsible for the tumorous state of a transformed tissue. Cytokinin, one of those phytohormones, induces the formation of shoots in a tumor.
In the disclosed invention, regeneration of a transformed dicot plant is achieved by inactivating the cytokinin gene. Additionally, the cytokinin gene is replaced by foreign DNA. The plasmid containing the mutant T-DNA, with foreign DNA replacing the cytokinin gene, is accomplished by homologous recombination within Agrobacterium.
Specific Patent Information
Patent Number | Title, Independent Claims and Summary of Claims | Assignee | |||||||||||||||
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US 6051757
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Title – Regeneration of plants containing genetically engineered T-DNA
The United States patent US 6051757 claims
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Washington University, exclusively licensed toSyngenta |
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Remarks | A related United States application (US 07/155092) was in interference, the process by which the United States Patent Office determines who was the earliest inventor when there are competing claims (in this case, from Monsanto). According to the USPTO status database PAIR, Syngenta lost the interference case in 2004. |
Note: Patent information on this page was last updated on 10 March 2006.