Monsanto issued US patent for plants, seeds of corn variety CV959861

Nevin Barich

Nevin Barich

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia , March 26, 2014 () – From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventor Boerboom, Marvin L. (Olivia, MN), filed on April 27, 2012, was published online on March 18, 2014 (see also Biotechnology Companies).

The patent's assignee for patent number 8674200 is Monsanto Technology LLC (St.Louis, MO).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: "The present invention relates generally to the field of corn breeding. In particular, the invention relates to corn seed and plants of the variety designated CV959861, and derivatives and tissue cultures thereof.

"The goal of field crop breeding is to combine various desirable traits in a single variety/hybrid. Such desirable traits include greater yield, better stalks, better roots, resistance to insecticides, herbicides, pests, and disease, tolerance to heat and drought, reduced time to crop maturity, better agronomic quality, higher nutritional value, and uniformity in germination times, stand establishment, growth rate, maturity, and fruit size.

"Breeding techniques take advantage of a plant's method of pollination. There are two general methods of pollination: a plant self-pollinates if pollen from one flower is transferred to the same or another flower of the same plant. A plant cross-pollinates if pollen comes to it from a flower on a different plant.

"Corn plants (Zea mays L.) can be bred by both self-pollination and cross-pollination. Both types of pollination involve the corn plant's flowers. Corn has separate male and female flowers on the same plant, located on the tassel and the ear, respectively. Natural pollination occurs in corn when wind blows pollen from the tassels to the silks that protrude from the tops of the ear shoot.

"Plants that have been self-pollinated and selected for type over many generations become homozygous at almost all gene loci and produce a uniform population of true breeding progeny, a homozygous plant. A cross between two such homozygous plants produces a uniform population of hybrid plants that are heterozygous for many gene loci. Conversely, a cross of two plants each heterozygous at a number of loci produces a population of hybrid plants that differ genetically and are not uniform. The resulting non-uniformity makes performance unpredictable.

"The development of uniform corn plant hybrids requires the development of homozygous inbred plants, the crossing of these inbred plants, and the evaluation of the crosses. Pedigree breeding and recurrent selection are examples of breeding methods used to develop inbred plants from breeding populations. Those breeding methods combine the genetic backgrounds from two or more inbred plants or various other broad-based sources into breeding pools from which new inbred plants are developed by selfing and selection of desired phenotypes. The new inbreds are crossed with other inbred plants and the hybrids from these crosses are evaluated to determine which of those have commercial potential.

"North American farmers plant tens of millions of acres of corn at the present time and there are extensive national and international commercial corn breeding programs. A continuing goal of these corn breeding programs is to develop corn hybrids that are based on stable inbred plants and have one or more desirable characteristics. To accomplish this goal, the corn breeder must select and develop superior inbred parental plants."

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventor's summary information for this patent: "In one aspect, the present invention provides a corn plant of the variety designated CV959861. Also provided are corn plants having all the physiological and morphological characteristics of the inbred corn variety CV959861. The inbred corn plant of the invention may further comprise, or have, a cytoplasmic or nuclear factor that is capable of conferring male sterility or otherwise preventing self-pollination, such as by self-incompatibility. Parts of the corn plant of the present invention are also provided, for example, pollen obtained from an inbred plant and an ovule of the inbred plant.

"The invention also concerns seed of the inbred corn variety CV959861. The inbred corn seed of the invention may be provided as an essentially homogeneous population of inbred corn seed of the variety designated CV959861. Essentially homogeneous populations of inbred seed are generally free from substantial numbers of other seed. Therefore, in the practice of the present invention, inbred seed generally forms at least about 97% of the total seed. The population of inbred corn seed of the invention may be particularly defined as being essentially free from hybrid seed. The inbred seed population may be separately grown to provide an essentially homogeneous population of inbred corn plants designated CV959861.

"In a further aspect of the invention, a composition is provided comprising a seed of corn variety CV959861 comprised in plant seed growth media. In certain embodiments, the plant seed growth media is a soil or synthetic cultivation medium. In specific embodiments, the growth medium may be comprised in a container or may, for example, be soil in a field.

"In another aspect of the invention, a plant of corn variety CV959861 comprising an added heritable trait is provided. The heritable trait may comprise a genetic locus that is a dominant or recessive allele. In one embodiment of the invention, a plant of corn variety CV959861 comprising a single locus conversion in particular is provided. In specific embodiments of the invention, an added genetic locus confers one or more traits such as, for example, male sterility, herbicide tolerance, insect resistance, disease resistance, waxy starch, modified fatty acid metabolism, modified phytic acid metabolism, modified carbohydrate metabolism and modified protein metabolism. The trait may be, for example, conferred by a naturally occurring maize gene introduced into the genome of the variety by backcrossing, a natural or induced mutation, or a transgene introduced through genetic transformation techniques. When introduced through transformation, a genetic locus may comprise one or more transgenes integrated at a single chromosomal location.

"In yet another aspect of the invention, an inbred corn plant of the variety designated CV959861 is provided, wherein a cytoplasmically-inherited trait has been introduced into said inbred plant. Such cytoplasmically-inherited traits are passed to progeny through the female parent in a particular cross. An exemplary cytoplasmically-inherited trait is the male sterility trait. Cytoplasmic-male sterility (CMS) is a pollen abortion phenomenon determined by the interaction between the genes in the cytoplasm and the nucleus. Alteration in the mitochondrial genome and the lack of restorer genes in the nucleus will lead to pollen abortion. With either a normal cytoplasm or the presence of restorer gene(s) in the nucleus, the plant will produce pollen normally. A CMS plant can be pollinated by a maintainer version of the same variety, which has a normal cytoplasm but lacks the restorer gene(s) in the nucleus, and continue to be male sterile in the next generation. The male fertility of a CMS plant can be restored by a restorer version of the same variety, which must have the restorer gene(s) in the nucleus. With the restorer gene(s) in the nucleus, the offspring of the male-sterile plant can produce normal pollen grains and propagate. A cytoplasmically inherited trait may be a naturally occurring maize trait or a trait introduced through genetic transformation techniques.

"In another aspect of the invention, a tissue culture of regenerable cells of a plant of variety CV959861 is provided. The tissue culture will preferably be capable of regenerating plants capable of expressing all of the physiological and morphological characteristics of the variety, and of regenerating plants having substantially the same genotype as other plants of the variety. Examples of some of the physiological and morphological characteristics that may be assessed include characteristics related to yield, maturity, and kernel quality. The regenerable cells in such tissue cultures will preferably be derived from embryos, meristematic cells, immature tassels, microspores, pollen, leaves, anthers, roots, root tips, silk, flowers, kernels, ears, cobs, husks, or stalks, or from callus or protoplasts derived from those tissues. Still further, the present invention provides corn plants regenerated from the tissue cultures of the invention, the plants having all the physiological and morphological characteristics of variety CV959861.

"In yet another aspect of the invention, processes are provided for producing corn seeds or plants, which processes generally comprise crossing a first parent corn plant as a male or female parent with a second parent corn plant, wherein at least one of the first or second parent corn plants is a plant of the variety designated CV959861. These processes may be further exemplified as processes for preparing hybrid corn seed or plants, wherein a first inbred corn plant is crossed with a second corn plant of a different, distinct variety to provide a hybrid that has, as one of its parents, the inbred corn plant variety CV959861. In these processes, crossing will result in the production of seed. The seed production occurs regardless of whether the seed is collected or not.

"In one embodiment of the invention, the first step in 'crossing' comprises planting, preferably in pollinating proximity, seeds of a first and second parent corn plant, and preferably, seeds of a first inbred corn plant and a second, distinct inbred corn plant. Where the plants are not in pollinating proximity, pollination can nevertheless be accomplished by transferring a pollen or tassel bag from one plant to the other as described below.

"A second step comprises cultivating or growing the seeds of said first and second parent corn plants into plants that bear flowers (corn bears both male flowers (tassels) and female flowers (silks) in separate anatomical structures on the same plant). A third step comprises preventing self-pollination of the plants, i.e., preventing the silks of a plant from being fertilized by any plant of the same variety, including the same plant. This is preferably done by emasculating the male flowers of the first or second parent corn plant, (i.e., treating or manipulating the flowers so as to prevent pollen production, in order to produce an emasculated parent corn plant). Self-incompatibility systems may also be used in some hybrid crops for the same purpose. Self-incompatible plants still shed viable pollen and can pollinate plants of other varieties but are incapable of pollinating themselves or other plants of the same variety.

"A fourth step may comprise allowing cross-pollination to occur between the first and second parent corn plants. When the plants are not in pollinating proximity, this is done by placing a bag, usually paper or glassine, over the tassels of the first plant and another bag over the silks of the incipient ear on the second plant. The bags are left in place for at least 24 hours. Since pollen is viable for less than 24 hours, this assures that the silks are not pollinated from other pollen sources, that any stray pollen on the tassels of the first plant is dead, and that the only pollen transferred comes from the first plant. The pollen bag over the tassel of the first plant is then shaken vigorously to enhance release of pollen from the tassels, and the shoot bag is removed from the silks of the incipient ear on the second plant. Finally, the pollen bag is removed from the tassel of the first plant and is placed over the silks of the incipient ear of the second plant, shaken again and left in place. Yet another step comprises harvesting the seeds from at least one of the parent corn plants. The harvested seed can be grown to produce a corn plant or hybrid corn plant.

"The present invention also provides corn seed and plants produced by a process that comprises crossing a first parent corn plant with a second parent corn plant, wherein at least one of the first or second parent corn plants is a plant of the variety designated CV959861. In one embodiment of the invention, corn seed and plants produced by the process are first generation (F.sub.1) hybrid corn seed and plants produced by crossing an inbred in accordance with the invention with another, distinct inbred. The present invention further contemplates seed of an F.sub.1 hybrid corn plant. Therefore, certain exemplary embodiments of the invention provide an F.sub.1 hybrid corn plant and seed thereof.

"In still yet another aspect of the invention, the genetic complement of the corn plant variety designated CV959861 is provided. The phrase 'genetic complement' is used to refer to the aggregate of nucleotide sequences, the expression of which sequences defines the phenotype of, in the present case, a corn plant, or a cell or tissue of that plant. A genetic complement thus represents the genetic make up of an inbred cell, tissue or plant, and a hybrid genetic complement represents the genetic make up of a hybrid cell, tissue or plant. The invention thus provides corn plant cells that have a genetic complement in accordance with the inbred corn plant cells disclosed herein, and plants, seeds and diploid plants containing such cells.

"Plant genetic complements may be assessed by genetic marker profiles, and by the expression of phenotypic traits that are characteristic of the expression of the genetic complement, e.g., isozyme typing profiles. It is understood that variety CV959861 could be identified by any of the many well known techniques such as, for example, Simple Sequence Length Polymorphisms (SSLPs) (Williams et al., Nucleic Acids Res., 18:6531-6535, 1990), Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNAs (RAPDs), DNA Amplification Fingerprinting (DAF), Sequence Characterized Amplified Regions (SCARs), Arbitrary Primed Polymerase Chain Reaction (AP-PCR), Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphisms (AFLPs) (EP 534 858, specifically incorporated herein by reference in its entirety), and Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) (Wang et al., Science, 280:1077-1082, 1998).

"In still yet another aspect, the present invention provides hybrid genetic complements, as represented by corn plant cells, tissues, plants, and seeds, formed by the combination of a haploid genetic complement of an inbred corn plant of the invention with a haploid genetic complement of a second corn plant, preferably, another, distinct inbred corn plant. In another aspect, the present invention provides a corn plant regenerated from a tissue culture that comprises a hybrid genetic complement of this invention.

"In still yet another aspect, the present invention provides a method of producing an inbred corn plant derived from the corn variety CV959861, the method comprising the steps of: (a) preparing a progeny plant derived from corn variety CV959861, wherein said preparing comprises crossing a plant of the corn variety CV959861 with a second corn plant; (b) crossing the progeny plant with itself or a second plant to produce a seed of a progeny plant of a subsequent generation; © growing a progeny plant of a subsequent generation from said seed of a progeny plant of a subsequent generation and crossing the progeny plant of a subsequent generation with itself or a second plant; and (d) repeating the steps for an additional 3-10 generations to produce an inbred corn plant derived from the corn variety CV959861. In the method, it may be desirable to select particular plants resulting from step © for continued crossing according to steps (b) and ©. By selecting plants having one or more desirable traits, an inbred corn plant derived from the corn variety CV959861 is obtained which possesses some of the desirable traits of corn variety CV959861 as well as potentially other selected traits."

For additional information on this patent, see: Boerboom, Marvin L.. Plants and Seeds of Corn Variety CV959861. U.S. Patent Number 8674200, filed April 27, 2012, and published online on March 18, 2014. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=74&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=3667&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=20140318.PD.&OS=ISD/20140318&RS=ISD/20140318

Keywords for this news article include: Pollen, Cytoplasm, Flowering Tops, Monsanto Company, Plant Germ Cells, Plant Structures, Intracellular Space, Biotechnology Companies, Monsanto Technology LLC.

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