| abstract |
Compositions and methods for producing chitin and chitosan in plants are provided. The compositions comprise plant expression cassettes for chitin synthase, chitin deacetylase, glutamine:fructose-6-phosphate amidotransferase and/or biologically active fragments and variants thereof. Such expression vectors find use in increasing the tensile strength of plant tissues, providing pathogen-resistant plants, and in producing chitin, chitosan, chitin:cellulose blends and chitosan:cellulose blends for industrial uses. Additionally provided are transformed plant cells, plants and seeds. |