| abstract |
This invention provides an alternative source of ahas and pds nucleic acids for plant transformation and selection. In particular, the invention provides ahas and pds nucleic acids from cyanobacteria, for example, Synechocystis , and expression elements of these genes for control of expression in plastids. The invention further provides nucleic acids encoding the acetolactate synthase (ahas) large subunit and the ahas small subunit which were found to provide herbicide resistance to plants. The present invention also provides a novel Synechocystis mutant phytoene desaturase (PDS) gene conferring resistance to 4′-fluoro-6-[(alpha, alpha, alpha,-trfluoro-m-tolyl)oxy]-picolinamide, a bleaching herbicide. The present invention provides improved methods involving cyanobacteria for the screening of compounds, including a new high throughput protocol that is a rapid and cost effective way to identify target site genes. |