20090083880 | MODIFIED PLANT DEFENSIN - The invention herein includes a general method for reducing or eliminating a toxic effect of transgenic defensin expression in a host plant. The invention also includes a method of modifying a nucleic acid encoding a defensin, a nucleic acid modified thereby and a modified defensin encoded by the modified nucleic acid sequence. The invention also includes a transgenic plant containing and expressing the modified defensin-coding nucleic acid sequence, the plant exhibiting reduced or eliminated toxic effects of defensin, compared with otherwise comparable transgenic plants expressing an unmodified defensin. The modified defensin is termed a chimeric defensin having a mature defensin domain of a first plant defensin combined with a C-terminal propeptide domain of a second plant defensin or a vacuolar translocation peptide. | 03-26-2009 |