A plant binary vector with an antisense soybean UDP-glucose dehydrogenase gene

Soybean seeds are a valuable food and feed source because of their high protein and oil content. Conventional breeding has had limited success in increasing both oil and protein. Reducing the amount of cell wall polysaccharide in soybean seed could allow higher protein and oil content, thus increasing their economic value. UDP-glucose dehydrogenase is a key enzyme in cell wall polysaccharide synthesis. To investigate the role of UDP-glucose dehydrogenase in seed development, a transgenic approach was initiated. A new binary vector has been constructed for soybean transformation that has the following features: i) the selectable marker hygromycin phosphotransferase (hpt); ii) placement of the selectable marker adjacent to the T-DNA left border and, iii) an antisense copy of the UDP-glucose dehydrogenase gene driven by the seed-specific vicilin promoter. This genetic construct was engineered to suppress the expression of UDP-glucose dehydrogenase in soybean seeds.