Plants which synthesise a modified starch, process for the production thereof and modified starch

摘要

New nucleic acid (I) encoding a protein (P), present in plant cells in both soluble form and bound to starch granules, (a) encodes a 1464 amino acid (aa) of (P) reproduced in the specification; (b) includes the coding region of a 4856 bp sequence reproduced in the specification; (c) can hybridise with (a) or (b); (d) is degenerate, within the genetic code, with (a)-(c) or (e) is a fragment, deriv. or allelic variant of (a)-(d). Also claimed are: (1) DNA (II) encoding RNA that is antisense to a (I) transcript, has ribozyme activity on this transcript or which when expressed in a plant cell reduces expression of (I) by a co-suppressant effect; (2) nucleic acid fragments (III) of at least 15 nucleotides that hybridise specifically with (I); (3) plants contg. cells contg. (I) or (II); and (4) starch obtained from these plants.