Leaf Energy holds the patented rights to TaBV promoter.
A primary goal of genetic engineering is to improve the characteristics and traits in plants. Such characteristics can include the plant's resistance to diseases, viruses and herbivores, or tolerance to heat, drought and salinity.
Recent advances in genetic engineering allow incorporation of a gene/s of interest (foreign or endogenous) into a selected plant. This gene/s can then be expressed in the regenerated plant and exhibit the new trait or characteristic.
The efficiency of this expression is governed largely by the promoter. There are currently a number of promoters for gene expression in dicotyledonous plants, however there are very few identified promoter sequences which can be used to effectively express gene/s of interest in monocotyledonous plants.
Our promoter, TaBV, derived from the Taro bacilloform virus of Papua New Guinea, is constitutively expressed in both dicotyledonous plants and monocotyledonous plants.
In addition to being useful for the production of transgenic plant lines expressing beneficial traits, TaBV can also be used for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of badnaviral infections.
It is anticipated that such advances in the agri-biotechnology industry will provide massive economic savings to the global farming industry and path the way for the use of plants as protein and enzyme factories.
