MXPA99008795A - Plants with modified growth - Google Patents

Abstract

A process is provided for modifying growth or architecture of plants by altering the level or the functional level of a cell division controlling protein, preferably a cell-division controlling protein that binds or phosphorylates retinoblasoma-like proteins, more preferably a cyclin, particularly a D-type cyclin within cells of a plant. Also provided are chimeric genes comprising a transcribed DNA region encoding an RNA or a protein, which when expressed either increases or decreases the level or functional level of a cell-division controlling protein, and plant cells and plants expressing such chimeric genes.

Description

PLANTS WITH GROWTH MODIFIED This invention relates to the use of cell division controlling proteins or parts thereof, preferably cell division controlling proteins that bind to retinoblasome-like proteins, more preferably, cyclins, particularly D-type cyclins and genes encoding the same, to produce plants with modified phenotypes, particularly plants with modified growth rates or plants comprising parts with modified growth rates and / or modified relative sizes or plants with modified architecture. This invention also relates to plant and plant cells expressing such DNAs.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION All eukaryotic cells undergo the same sequential series of events when they are divided, and the term "cell cycle" reflects the orderly nature and universality of these events. In the replication of eukaryotic cell cycle DNA (S) and cell division (M) they are normally temporarily separated by "orifice" phases (G 1 and G 2) in the sequence G 1 -S-G2-M. This arrangement allows entry to the critical processes of DNA replication and mitosis to be controlled precisely. Basing the cytological events of the cell cycle is an ordered series of cellular and molecular processes organized temporally and spatially, which define the direction and order of the cycle. The progression of the cell cycle seems to be regulated in all eukaryotes by major controls operating in the limits of the phase G 1 -a-S and the phase G2-a-M. The passage through these control points requires the activation of cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs), whose catalytic activity and substrate specificity are determined by specific regulatory subunits known as cyclins, and by interactions with other proteins that regulate the state of phosphorylation of the complex (reviewed in Atherton-Fessier et al., 1993; Solomon, 1993). In fission yeast and shoots, both G1-a-S and G2-a-M phase transitions are controlled by a single CDK, encoded by the cdc2 + gene in Schizosaccharomyces pombe and by CDC28 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The association of p34cdc2 (p34CDC28 in bud yeast) with different cyclin partners distinguishes the two control points (reviewed in Nasmyth, 1993). In mammalian cells, a more complex situation prevails, with at least six related but distinct CDKs (encoded by cdc2 / cdk1, cdk2, cdk3, coT ain 4, cdkd and cdkß) having different roles, each in conjunction with one or more known cyclin partners (Fang and Newport, 1991; Meyerson et al., 1 991, 1992; Xiong et al., 1 992b; Tsai et al., 1993a; van den Heuvel and Harlow, 1 993; Meyerson and Harlow; , 1994). Type B cyclins are the main class involved in the G2-a-M transition and are associated with p34 cdc2 or their direct homologs (reviewed in Nurse, 1990). Cyclin B is one of the two cyclins originally described as accumulating in invertebrate eggs during interphase and rapidly destroyed in mitosis (Evans et al., 1988), and is a component of the Xenopus maturation promoter factor. (Murray et al., 1989). Subsequently, cyclin B homologs of many eukaryotic species have been identified. Cyclin A is also widely spread in multicellular organisms, and its precise role is not clear, although its abundance peak suggests a role in the S phase (reviewed in Pines, 1993). The phase transition G 1 -a-S is better understood in S. cerevisiae.

Genetic studies define a late point in G 1 called START. After passing START, the cells are subjected to entering the S phase and completing a full additional round of division, which will result in two daughter cells again in G 1 phase (Hartwell, 1974, reviewed in Nasmyth, 1993). The products of three cyclin G1 genes of S. cerevisiae called CLN1, CLN2 and CLN3 are the main limiting components for the passage through START (Richardson et al., 1989; Wittenberg et al. , 1990; Tyers et al. , 1 993). The transcription of CLN1 and CLN2 is activated in G 1, and the accumulation of its protein products at a critical threshold level by a positive feedback mechanism leads to activation of the p34CDC28 kinase and transition through START (Dirick and Nasmyth , 1991). The G 1 cyclins are then degraded as a consequence of PEST motifs in their primary sequence that appears to result in a rapid protein change (Rogers et al., 1986; Lew et al., 1 991; reviewed in Reed, 1 991). The G1 cyclins of S. cerevisiae are at least partially redundant, because strains of yeast in which two of the three G1 cyclin genes are deleted and the third is placed under the control of a prootor regulated by galactose show a galactose-dependent growth phenotype. Such strains have been used to identify Drosophila and human cDNA clones that rescue this conditional clone-deficient phenotype in glucose plates when the simple yeast CLN gene present is repressed (Koff et al., 1991; Lahue et al., 1991; Léopold and O'Farrel, 1991; Lew et al., 1991; Xiong et al., 1991). The human cDNAs encoding three new classes of cyclins, C, D and E, were identified by this means. Although these cyclins show only limited homology with yeast CLN proteins, they have proven to be important in understanding the controls that operate in mammalian cells during G1 and at the restriction point in the G1-aS phase boundary (Pardee, 1989; matsushime et al., 1992; Koff et al., 1992, 1993; Ando et al., 1993; Quelle et al., 1993; Tsai et al., 1993b). Cyclin E may act as a rate-limiting component in the G1-aS phase boundary (Ohtsubo and Roberts, 1993; Wimrnel et al., 1994), while the dependence of cyclin D levels on the growth factors of serum (Matsushime et al., 1991; Baldin et al., 1993; Sewing et al., 1993) suggests that type-d cyclins can form a link between these signals and the progression of the cell cycle. An important factor involved in the regulation of the progression in mammals in the retinoblastoma susceptibility gene that encode the retinoblastoma protein (Rb). Rb binds and inactivates the E2F family of transcription factors, and it is through this ability that Rb exerts most of its potential to restrict cell division in the G1 phase. It is known that E2F transcription factors turn on cyclin E and S-phase genes and the cylindrical E and / or E2f rinse levels lead to the initiation of replication (Nevins, 1992, Johnson et al., 1993). The ability of Rb to inactivate E2F depends on its phosphorylation status. During the majority of G 1, Rb is a hypophosphorylated state, but in the late G 1 phase, Rb phosphorylation is performed by cylindrine-dependent kinases, particularly CDK4 in complex with its essential regulatory subunit, cyclin D (Pines, 1995). and CDK2 in complex with cyclin E (in the limit G 1 / S) or cyclin A (in the S phase). These multiple phosphorylations of Rb cause E2F to be released, which can then ultimately promote the transcription of the S-phase genes. Plant cells were used in early cell growth and division studies to define the discrete phases of the cycle. eukaryotic cells (Howard and Pele, 1953), but there is a dearth of data in the control of molecular cell cycle in plant systems. Plant cells that stop dividing in vivo due to inactivity, or in vitro due to lack of nutrients, stop at major control sites in G 1 and G 2 (van't Hof and Kovacs, 1972; Gould et al. , 1981; revised in vant't Hof, 1 985); this is in general agreement with the controls that operate in other eukaryotic systems. Although mature plant cells can be found with either G 1 or G 2 DNA content (Evans and van't Hof, 1 974; Gould et al. , 1981), the population of G 1 generally predominates. It is found that the control point G 1 • - is more 'severe in cells of cultivated plants subject to lack of nitrogen; these cells stop exclusively in the G 1 phase (Gould et al., 1981). There are thus strong analogies between the main control point in G 1 of the plant cell cycle, the START control in yeast, and the restriction point of mammalian cells.

Histone Hl kinase assays or antibodies have been used to indicate the presence and localization of active CDC2-related kinases in plant cells (John et al., 1989, 1990, 1991, Mineyuki et al., 1991; Chiatante et al. , 1993; Colosanti et al., 1993; reviewed in John et al., 1993), and cDNAs encoding functional kinase homologs of CDC2 have been isolated by hybridization of reduced stringency or redundant polymerase chain reaction of a number of species of plants, including pea (Feiler and Jacobs, 1990), alfalfa (Hiert et al., 1991, 1993), Arabidopsis (Ferreira et al., 1991, Hirayama et al., 1991), soy (Miao et al., 1993) , Antirrhinum (Fobert et al., 1994), and maize (Colosanti et al., 1991). A number of cDNA sequences encoding mitotic cyclins from plants with characteristics of type A or B or having mixed aspects of type A and B of several species, including carrot (Hata et al., 1991), soybean (Hata et al. al., 1991), Arabidopsis (Hemerly et al., 1992; Day and Reddy, 1994), alfalfa (Hirt et al., 1992), Antirrhinum (Fobert et al., 1994), and maize (Renaudin et al., 1994). Soní et al., () 1995) identified a new family of three related cyclins in Arabidopsis by complementation of a yeast strain deficient in G1 cyclins. The individual members of this family showed tissue-specific expression and are conserved in other plant species. They form a distinctive group of plant cyclins and were called d-type cyclins to indicate their similarities to mammalian D-type cyclins. Sequence ratios between cyclins d and D include the N-terminal sequence LxCxE. Leucine is preceded in the -1 or -2 position by an amino acid with an acid side chain (D, E). This motif was originally identified in certain viral oncoproteins and is strongly involved in ligation to the retinoblastoma protein. By analogy to mammalian cyclin D, these plant homologs can mediate growth and phytohormonal signals in the plant cell cycle. In this regard, it was shown that, in the restimulation of cells cultured in suspension, cyclin 53 was rapidly induced by the plant growth regulating cytokinin, and cyclin d2 was induced by carbon source. Renaudin et al. , (1996) defined the groups and nomenclature of the plant cyclins and the d-cyclins are now called CycD cyclins. Dahl et al. (1995) identified in alfalfa a cyclin (cycMs4) related to 53 in alfalfa. Recently, Rb-like proteins were identified in plants. Both Xie et al. , (1 996) as Grafi et al. , (1996) describe the isolation and preliminary characterization of a corn Rb homolog. Doerner et al. , (1996) describe the ectopic expression of a type B cyclin (cyd At of Arabidopsis) under the control of a promoter of the cdc2a gene in Arabidopsis. Transgenic plants "cdc2a" expressing the transgene strongly have a markedly increased root growth rate. Moreover, the growth and development of lateral roots was accelerated following the induction with indoleacetic acid in the transgenic plants in relation to the control plants. Hemerly et al. (1995) describe transgenic Arabidopsis and tobacco plants that express dominant or wild-type mutations of a kinase that operates in mitosis (CDC2a). Plants constitutively overproducing wild-type CDC2a or a mutant form that is predicted to accelerate the cell cycle did not exhibit significantly altered development. A CDC2a mutant, was expected to stop the cell cycle, abolished cell division when expressed in Arabidopsis. Some tobacco plants were recovered constitutively producing the last mutant kinase. These plants contained considerably less but larger cells. PCT patent publication "WO" 92/09685 describes a method for controlling plant cell growth by modulating the level of a cell cycle protein in a plant for a time and under conditions sufficient to control cell division. The preferred protein, identified in the examples, is a p34cdc2 kinase or the like operating in mitosis. WO 93/12239 discloses plants with altered stature and other phenotypic effects, particularly early flowering and increased numbers of flowers by transformation of the plant genome with a cdc25 gene of a yeast, such as, Schizosaccharomyces pombe. WO97 / 47647 relates to the isolation and characterization of a DNA sequence of the plant encoding a retinoblastoma protein, the use thereof for the control of growth in plant cells, plants and / or plant viruses, as well as the use of vectors, plants or animals, or animal cells modified through a manipulation of the control route based on the plant retinoblastoma protein.

U.S. Patent 5,514,571 describes the use of cyclin D 1 as a negative regulator of mammalian cell proliferation. Overexpression of cyclin D1 blocks the growth of mammalian cells, while blocking the expression of cyclin D 1 promotes cell proliferation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The invention provides a process for obtaining a plant with altered growth characteristics or altered architecture, particularly plants with reduced or increased growth rates, plants which require less time to flower or plants with an increased number of flowers per plant, or plant with an increased size of an organ comprising the step of altering the level or functional level of a cell-dividing controlling protein, capable of binding and / or phosphorylating a Rb-like protein, preferably a dividing-controlling protein cell, comprising a LxCxE ligation motif or related motif, preferably in the N-terminal part of the protein, particularly a D-type cyclin, within the cells of a plant. A process for obtaining a plant with altered growth characteristics or altered architecture comprising the step of altering the level or functional level of the cell division controlling protein by integrating a chimeric gene into the genome of the cells of the plant is also provided, comprising the following operably linked DNA fragments: a) a promoter region expressible in plant, particularly a promoter region CaMV35S, b) a region of transcribed DNA encoding an RNA or a protein, which when expressed, either increases or decreases the level or the functional level of the cell division controlling protein; and optionally, c) a 3 'end formation and functional polyadenylation signal in plant cells. According to the invention, the transcribed DNA region encodes an antisense RNA, a ribozyme or a sense RNA strand, which when expressed, reduces, inhibits or prevents the expression of a cell division controlling protein, particularly a cyclin endogenous type D. In addition, according to the invention, the transcribed DNA encodes a cell division controlling protein capable of binding the pocket domain of an Rb-like protein, preferably a cell division controlling protein comprising a binding motif LxCxE, more preferably, a type D cyclin, particularly a type D cyclin of plants, more particularly a type D cyclin is selected from the group of Arabidopsis thaliana CYCD1, Arabidopsis thaliana CYCD2, Arabidopsis thaliana CYCD3, Nicotiana tabacum CYCD2; 1, Nicotiana tabacum CYCD3; 1, Nicotiana tabacum CYCD3; 2, Helianthus tuberosus CYCD 1; 1, Zea mays CYCD2 and Helianthus tuberosus CYCD3; 1 . Also, according to the invention, the transcribed RNA encodes a protein or peptide, which, when expressed, increases said functional level of said cell division controlling protein, particularly a protein or peptide selected from: a mutant D-type cyclin, a part of type D cyclin, a type D cyclin, which has a mutation in the cyclin box, a cyclin type D2, which has a substitution of amino acid 1 85 or amino acid 1 55, a cyclin type D2 which has a mutation E 1 85A or K1 55A, a type D cyclin where the PEST sequences are removed, a type D cyclin, where the binding motif LxCxE has been changed or deleted, or a type D cyclin, where the C residue of the LxCxE ligation reason has been deleted. It is also an object of the invention to provide such chimeric genes. In addition, plant, plant and seed cells thereof are provided, comprising the chimeric genes of the invention and having altered growth characteristics and / or altered architecture.

Another objective of the invention is to provide the use of a cell division controlling protein, capable of binding the pocket domain of a Rb-like protein and / or capable of phosphorylating an Rb-like protein, particularly a cell-dividing-controlling protein comprising a LxCxE ligation motif in the N-terminal part of the protein, more particularly a type D Cillin and genes encoding it, to alter the growth characteristics or architecture of a plant. The cell division controlling protein is encoded, preferably, by a chimeric gene, integrated into the genome of the cells of a plant.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE I NVENTION As used herein, "architecture" of a plant refers to the general morphology as defined by the relative sizes, positions and number of the various parts of a plant (i.e., organs, such as, but not limited to, leaves, inflorescences, storage organs, such as, tubers, roots, stems, flowers, or parts of organs, such as petals, sepals, anthers, stigma, style, petiole and the like). "Altering the architecture of a plant" thus refers to changes in general morphology as the result of changing, for example, the number, size and position of organs or parts of organs. It is clear that altering either an organ or part of an organ or several organs or parts of organs, as described, will result in an altered plant architecture. This can be achieved by altering (ie, intensifying or reducing) cell division activity in existing meristems and / or organ primordia or by creating de novo meristems. As used herein, "co-suppression" refers to the process of transcriptional and / or post-transcriptional suppression of RNA accumulation in a sequence-specific manner, resulting in the suppression of the expression of endogenous homologous genes or transgenes. Suppressing the expression of an endogenous gene can be achieved by introducing a fransgene comprising a strong promoter operably linked to a DNA region, whereby the resulting transcribed RNA is a sense RNA comprising a nucleotide sequence, which is at least 75 %, preferably at least 80%, particularly at least 85%, more particularly at least 90%, especially at least 95% for the coding or transcribed (sense) DNA sequence of the gene whose expression is to be deleted. Preferably, the transcribed DNA region does not encode a functional protein. Particularly, the transcribed region does not encode a protein. As used herein, the term "plant expressible promoter" means a promoter, which is capable of driving transcription in a plant cell. This includes any promoter of plant origin, but also any promoter of non-plant origin, which is capable of directing the transcription in a plant cell, for example, certain promoters of viral or bacterial origin, such as promoters of CaMV35S or T-DNA genes. The term "expression of a gene" refers to the process, wherein a region of DNA under the control of regulatory regions, particularly the promoter, is transcribed into an RNA, which is biologically active, that is, which is either capable of interaction with another nucleic acid or protein, or which is capable of being translated into a biologically active polypeptide or protein. A gene is said to encode an RNA when the final product of gene expression is biologically active RNA, such as, for example, an antisense RNA or a ribozyme. It is said that a The gene encodes a protein when the final product of gene expression is a biologically active protein or polypeptide. The term "gene" refers to any DNA fragment comprising a region of DNA (the "region of transcribed DNA") that is transcribed into an RNA molecule (e.g., an mRNA) in a cell • > under control of suitable regulatory regions, for example, a promoter expressible in plant. Thus, a gene can comprise several operably linked DNA fragments, such as a promoter, a 5 'leader sequence, a coding region, and a 3' region comprising a polyadenylation site. An endogenous plant gene is a gene which is found naturally in a plant species. A chimeric gene is any gene which is not normally found in a plant species or, alternatively, any gene, in which the promoter is not associated in nature with part or all of the region of transcribed DNA or with at least another gene regulatory region. This invention is based on the unexpected finding that chimeric genes comprise DNA encoding a cell division controlling protein capable of binding a protein similar to Rb, particularly a type D plant cyclin, under the control of a plant-expressible pro could be stably integrated into the genome of plant cells, without detrimental effects, and further, that the increased expression of such a cell-dividing-controlling protein , particularly a type D cyclin, in plant cells led to specific alterations in the growth rate and architecture of the resulting transformed plants. Thus, the invention relates to modulating the level of expression or activity of functional cell division controlling proteins, preferably in a stable manner, within plant cells of a plant to alter the architecture or growth rate or both of the transformed plant and its progeny. Conveniently, the level or functional level of cell division controlling proteins is genetically controlled by altering the expression of genes encoding these cell division controlling proteins. Increasing the level or functional level of a cell division controlling protein can be achieved genetically, for example, by manipulating the number of copies of the coding genes or genes, by altering the promoter region of the coding genes or by manipulating the genes that directly or indirectly regulate the level of expression of a cell division controlling protein. Alternatively, the level of a cell-dividing-controlling protein can be increased by stabilizing the mRNA by encoding the cell-dividing-controlling protein, or by stabilizing the cell-dividing-controlling protein, for example, by removing motifs of destruction or the so-called PEST sequences. . The functional level or activity of the cell division controlling protein can be increased by decreasing the level of an antagonist or inhibitor of the cell division promoting protein, through techniques, such as, but not limited to, providing the cell with a protein, such as an inactive cell-dividing controlling protein similar to one whose functional level is to be increased, or part of such a cell-dividing-controlling protein, which is still capable of binding an inhibitor or other regulatory protein, or is still able to bind to cyclin-dependent kinases. The functional level or activity of the cell-dividing-controlling protein can also be increased by altering or mutating the cell-dividing-controlling protein to reduce or eliminate the binding of an antagonist or inhibitor of the protein activity related to cell division. Reduce the level Functionality of a cell division controlling protein can be achieved, for example, by decreasing mRNA deposition by encoding the cell division controlling protein that is available for translation, through techniques such as, but not limited to, antisense RNA, action of ribozyme or co-suppression. Alternatively, the functional level of the cell division controlling protein can be decreased by increasing the level of an antagonist or inhibitor of the cell-dividing promoter protein. For the purpose of this invention, a "cell division controlling protein" is a polypeptide or protein, which is required for the regulation of the progression through the cell cycle of a eukaryotic cell, preferably a cellular plant, or a protein, which can effect the entry of cells into the cell cycle or affect the progression of cells through the cell cycle through direct interaction with a protein required for the regulation of progression through the cell cycle, or a polypeptide or protein, the which can assume an equivalent function but is not required for the regulation of the cell cycle. Cell division-controlling proteins are proteins capable of phosphorylating either alone or in combination with other proteins, a Rb-like protein, preferably capable of phosphorylating an Rb-like protein in a plant cell in the G 1 -S transition phase, or capable of binding the pocket domain of retinoblastoma-like proteins (similar to Rb) ), preferably proteins having a LxCxE ligation motif comprised within the amino acid sequence or a related motif, such as LxSxE or FxCxE (the ligation motifs are represented in the one letter amino acid code, where x represents any amino acid ). Particularly, cyclines are preferred which comprise the LxCxE ligation motif (and / or related motif) in the N-terminal half of the protein, preferably within the first amino acid residues, particularly within the first 30 amino acids, such such as cyclins of type D, particularly cyclins of plants of type D, especially a cyclin from the group of Arabdopsis thaliana CYCD1, Arabidopsis thaliana CYCD2, Arabidopsis thaliana CYCD3, Nicotiana tabacum CYCD1; 1, Nicotiana tabacum CYCD2; 1, Nicotiana tabacum CYCD3; 2, Helianthus tuberosus CYCD 1; 1, Zea mays CYCD2 and Helianthus tuberosus CYCD3; 1 or a cyclin with essentially similar protein sequences. Cyclins of named plants of type D are completely characterized by the amino acid sequence encoded by the EMBL DNA sequence Access No. X83369 from nucleotide position 104 to nucleotide position 1 108 for Arabidopsis thaliana CYCD1, EMBL Access No. X83370 from nucleotide position 195 to nucleotide position 1 346 for Arabidopsis thaliana CYCD2, EMBL Accession No. X83371 from nucleotide position 266 to nucleotide position 1 396 for Arabidopsis thaliana CYCD3, the nucleotide sequence of S EQ ID No. 1 from the position of nucleotide 182 to the position of nucleotide 1 243 for Nicotiana tabacum CYCD2.1, the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID No. 2 from the position of nucleotides 1 81 to the position of nucleotides 1 29 * 9 for Nicotiana CYCD3 tabacum; 1, the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID No. 3 from nucleotide position 1 98 to nucleotide position 1 298 for Nicotiana tabacum CYCD3; 2, the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID No. 4 from nucleotide position 165 to the position of nucieotide 1 109 for Helianthus tuberosus CYCD1; 1, the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID No. 5 from nucleotide position 48 to nucleotide position 1 1 1 8 for Helianthus tuberosus CYCD3; 1 and the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID No. 21 from nucleotide position 316 to nucleotide position 1 389 for Zea mays CYCD2. It is thought that increasing, or decreasing respectively, the level or functional level or activity of these cell division controlling proteins accelerates, respectively retards, the transition from G 1 to the S phase in plant cells, or increases, respectively decreases, the proportion of actively dividing cells due to their interaction with Rb-like proteins that affect the ability of the Rb-like protein to inactivate certain transcription factors. It is further thought that the expression of these cell division controlling proteins that interact with Rb-like proteins effectively allows cells to initiate division processes, while the (over) expression of mitotic / G2 cyclins (such as cyclins of type) B or the gene product 00 ^ 25) in contrast is expected to lead to a more rapid progression through the G2 / mitotic phases of the cell cycles already initiated. For the purpose of this invention, "Rb-like proteins" are defined as proteins of the human Rb-1 protein group (Lee et al, 1987; Accession No. P06400), human p1 07 (Ewen et al., 1 991 Access No. L14812) and human p1 30 (Hannon et al., 1 993; Access A49370), Drosophila RBF (Du et al., 1 996; Access no, for DNA entry of the coding gene, X96975), RB of mouse (Bernards et al., 1989; Access no P1 3405), chicken RB (Boehmelt et al., 1994; Access no X72218), Xenopus Rb (Destree et al., 1992; Access A44879), ZmRb and Rb1 of Zea mays (Xie et al., 1996; Grafi et al., 1 996; accession numbers for DNA entry of the coding genes: X98923; GenBank U52099), as well as any protein that simultaneously has at least 25-30 % amino acid sequence identity (identity) for at least three members of the aforementioned group, and comprises the conserved cysteine residue located at position 706 of human Rb-1 or in positions equivalents in the other Rb-like proteins (see, for example, Xie et al., 1996). The Rb-like proteins are members of a small family known as "pocket proteins." This term is derived from a conserved bipartite domain, the so-called "pocket domain", which is the binding site for several growth control proteins, such as the E2F family of transcription factors, type D cyclins and viral oncoproteins. The subdomains A and B of the pocket domain are more conserved than the rest of the protein (-50-64% for the sub-domains A and B) and are separated by a non-conserved separator. The pocket domains are located between amino acids at positions 451 and 766 for human Rb, 321 to 81 1 for human p1 07, 438 to 962 for human p1 30, 445 to 758 for mouse RB, 441 to 758 for chicken RB, 440 for 767 for Xenopus Rb, 1 1 to 382 for corn ZmRb , 89 to 540 for corn Rb1. For the purpose of the invention "ligation to an Rb-like protein" or "pocket binding of an Rb-like protein" can be analyzed either by an in vitro assay or one of the in vivo assays, or a combination of the same. In the in vitro assay, the ligation is analyzed between the protein in question, which has been labeled by 35S-methionine, and a glutathione-S-transferase (GST) fusion protein and the pocket domain of a protein similar to Rb, such as human Rb. GST fusion allows easy purification and fixation of the fusion protein in glutathione sepharose beads. The interaction between the protein tested and the protein assimilating Rb is compared with the ligation between the same protein and a fusion protein of GST and an Rb-like protein with a mutation in the cysteine conserved in a position equivalent to cysteine 706 in Rb human, such as, human Rb C706f. Such an assay has been described, for example, by Dowdy et al. , (1 993) and Ewen et al. (1 993). In a variant of this assay, "Rb-like protein can be expressed in cells of insects infected with baculoviruses (Dowdy et al., 1993)." In a further variant, both the Rb-like protein and the ligation protein of Rb can be co-expressed in insect cells, and the association can be detected by gel filtration or co-immunoprecipitation (O'Reilly et al., 1992) An in vivo assay, which can be used to determine the ligation of a protein to the pocket domain of Rb-like proteins is the system of two yeast hybrids (Fields and Song, 1989). analysis is based on the ability to reconstitute a functional GAL4 activity of two separate GAL4 fusion proteins containing the DNA ligation domain (GAL4BD) and the activation domain (GAL4AD) fused to a pocket domain of a protein similar to Rb and the protein to be tested, respectively. Expression plasmids comprising chimeric genes encoding these fusion proteins are introduced into a yeast strain by encoding appropriate GAL4 inducible markers, such as strain HF7c (Feilloter et al., 1994) containing HIS3 and LacZ markers inducible with GAL4, or strain Y1 90 (Harper et al., 1992). Proteins that bind to the pocket domain of the Rb-like protein will allow growth in the absence of histidine. An example of a two-hybrid assay to demonstrate the interaction of a protein with an Rb-like protein has been described by Durfee et al. (1 993). Preferably, suitable control experiments should be included, such as separate introduction into the same yeast strain of the expression plasmids, or introduction of expression plasmids encoding fusion proteins containing the DNA ligation domain (GAL4B D) and the activation domain (GAL4AD) merged to a pocket domain with mutation of a Rb-like protein, preferably with mutation at the C706 positions or equivalents and the protein to be tested, respectively. An alternative in the in vitro assay to determine the ligation of a protein to the pocket domain of Rb-like proteins comprises Transient expression of both proteins in plant cells, preferably tobacco protoplasts, and immunoprecipitation using an antibody directed against one of the two proteins to measure the co-precipitation of the other protein. For the purpose of the invention "phosphorylation of a Rb-like protein" can be analyzed by an in vitro assay based on the use of 32 P-gamma-labeled adenosine triphosphate to monitor the capacity of a protein (or a combination of such proteins). cyclins and cyclin-dependent kinases) to transfer the labeled phosphate group to a target protein, as is known in the art. For the purpose of the invention "cyclin" can be defined as a regulatory protein, comprising a protein domain of approximately 1 00 amino acids known as the "cyclin box". The cyclin box is the binding site for cyclin-dependent kinases, allowing cyclin to exert its regulatory effect on the activity of cyclin.

CDKs kinase. A cyclin box can be identified by comparing the amino acid sequence of the protein with known cyclin boxes, such as the amino acid sequence between positions 81-1 86 of CYCD1 from Arabidopsis thaliana, between positions 96-201 of CYCD2 from Arabidopsis thaliana, between positions 86-191 of CYCD3 of Arabidopsis thaliana, the cyclin boxes described by Renaudin et al. , (1994; 1 996), by Soni et al. (1995), and by Hemerly et al (1992) An amino acid sequence identified as a cyclin box in the sequence comparison database must possess at least the five conserved residues. required for cyclin activity (R (97), D (126), L (144), K (155), E (1 85) (indicated positions are from the CYCD2 sequence of Arabidopsis thaliana) in the equivalent positions , (see, for example, Soni et al. (1995) and Renaudm et al. (1996)). Cyclins of type D (cyclin D or CycD) are cyclins that are characterized by the presence of additional characteristic sequences, such as as the LxCxE motif or related motifs for ligation of Rb-like proteins, which is found within the N-terminal part of the protein, preferably located between the N-terminus and the cyclin box, particularly within the first 50 amino acids , more particularly within the first 30 amino acids of the initiator methionine residue., the leucine of the binding motif is preceded in the -1 or -2 position by an amino acid with an acid side chain (D, E). Alternative ligation reasons can be found, such as, LxSxE and FxCxE. In fact, Phelps et al (1992) have identified 5 that the mutation of the LxCxE ligation motif in human papillomavirus E7 to LxSxE does not affect the ability of the protein to bind Rb-like proteins. Three groups of type D cyclins have been identified on the basis of sequence homology: CycD1 (comprising CycD1 from Arabidopsis thaliana and CYCD1; 1 of Helianthus tuberosus), CycD2 0 (comprising CYCD2 of Arabidopsis thaliana, CYCD2, 1 of Nicotiana tabacum, CYCD2 of Zea mays), CycD3 (comprising CYCD3 of Arabidopsis thaliana CYCD3, 1 of Nicotiana tabacum, CYCD3, 2 of Nicotiana tabacum and CYCD3 1 of Helianthus tuberosus). Nomenclature and consensus sequences have been described for D different types and groups of cyclins from plants including D type cyclins, by Renaudm et al. (1 996) and can be used to classify the new cyclins based on their amino acid sequence. For the purpose of the invention, the cell division controlling proteins can be provided to the cells either directly, for example, by electroporation of the protoplasts in the presence of the cellular division controlling proteins, or indirectly, by transforming the cells of the plant with a plant-expressible chimeric gene coding for the protein to be tested, either transiently or stably integrated into the protoplast genome. In one aspect of the invention, the level or functional level of the cell division controlling protein, capable of phosphorylating a RB-like protein or ligating the pocket domain of an RB-like protein, is increased, to obtain a plant with altered growth rate or altered architecture, by integrating a chimeric gene into the genome of the cells of the plant, comprising the following operably linked DNA fragments: a) an expressible promoter region in plant, particularly a promoter region CaMV35S, b) an transcribed DNA region encoding an RNA or a protein, which when expressed, either increases or decreases said level or functional level of said cell division controlling protein; and optionally c) a 3 'end formation and functional polyadenylation signal in plant cells.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the level of expression of cyclin D is increased by introduction into the genome of a plant cell of a chimeric gene comprising a region of transcribed DNA encoding a cyclin D, under the control of a promoter expressible in plant . The transcribed DNA region preferably comprises a nucleotide sequence selected from the nucleotide sequence of EMBL Access No. X83369 from the position of nucleotides 104 to the nucleotide position 1 1 08, the nucleotide sequence of EMBL Access No. X83370 from nucleotide position 195 to nucleotide position 1346, the nucleotide sequence of EMBL Access No. X83371 from nucleotide position 266 to nucleotide position 1 396, the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID No. 1 of nucleotide position 1 82 at the position of nucleotide 1243, the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID No. 2 from the position of nucleotide 1 81 to the position of nucleotide 1 299, the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID No. 3 of the position from nucleotide 1 98 to the position of nucleotide 1298, the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID No. 4 from the position of nucleotides 165 to the position of nucleotides 1 109, the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID No. 5 from the position of nucleotide 48 to the position of nucleotide 1 1 8 or the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID No. 21 from nucleotide position 316 to nucleotide position 1389. In a particularly preferred embodiment, the expression level of a cyclin of the CycD2 type is altered (ie, increased) by introduction into the genome of a plant cell of a "cycD2 chimeric gene" comprising a region of transcribed DNA encoding a cyclin of the CycD2 type, under the control of an expressible promoter in plant, > preferably, a constitutive promoter, particularly a CaMV35S promoter, such as the cycD2 chimeric gene of plasmid pCEC1, in order to alter the morphology, architecture and growth characteristics of the transgenic plant, particularly to increase the vegetative growth of the transgenic plant, more particularly to alter the growth rate of the transgenic plant. For the purpose of the invention, the "increase" or "decrease" of a measurable phenotypic trait is quantified as the difference between the average of the measurements pertinent to the description of that trait in different plants of a line of transgenic plants, and the average of the measurements of that trait in plants of natural type, divided by the average f of the measurements of that trait in plants of natural type, expressed in percentage, when the transgenic plants and control (natural type) are grown under the same supply conditions of nutrients, light, humidity, temperature and the like, preferably under standardized conditions. The preferred levels of increase or decrease are statistically significant, preferably at the 0.05 confidence level, particularly at the 0.01 confidence level, for example, by one-way analysis of variance (for example, as described in Statistical Methods by Snedecor and Cochran). The increase in the vegetative growth of a transgenic plant is monitored, preferably, by measuring the increase in dry weight during the growth period. The average increase in dry weight is defined as the difference in average dry weight of transgenic plants and natural type plants multiplied by 100 and divided by the average dry weight of the natural type plants. Normal increases in dry weight, particularly early in the growth period, by introduction of the cycD2 chimeric genes of the invention range from at least about 39% to about 350%, particularly from about 68% to about 150%. It is clear that increases in dry weight resulting from the introduction of the chemical genes of the invention may vary, depending on the species of plant or chimeric genes used, and any significant increase in dry weight in transgenic plants is encompassed by the invention, particularly a dry weight of at least about 1.4 times to at least about 4.5 times the dry weight in unprocessed control plants, particularly at least about 1.8 times to at least about 2.7 times the dry weight in control plants if not transformed. In any case, the average dry weight of the transgenic plants is statistically and significantly different from the average dry weight of the untransformed plants. The increase in the vegetative growth of a transgenic plant can also be determined by comparing the number of leaves visible in the transgenic plants and the wild type control plants at any given time. The difference in the number of plants is expected. leaves of transgenic plants in the center of the growing period is at least about 1 1 to at least about 3 times, particularly at least about 1.5 to at least about 2 times the number of leaves in the untransformed plants. The increase of the vegetative growth of a transgenic plant can also be monitored by measuring the height of the stem (measured from the ground level to the top of the growth point) during the growth period. The average increase in stem height is defined as the difference in average stem height of transgenic plants and natural type plants multiplied by 100 and divided by the average height of natural type plants. Normal increases in stem height upon introduction of the cycD2 chimeric genes of the invention range from at least about 65% early during growth, about at least about 20-30% at the center of the growth period, to at least about 10% by the time of flowering, but can be as high as approximately 120% up to approximately 190% early during growth, as high as approximately 40-50% up to approximately 75% at the center of the growth period, and as high as approximately 15-20% at the end of the blooming stage. It is clear that increases in stem height resulting from the introduction of the chimeric genes of the invention may vary, depending on the plant species or chimeric genes used, and any significant increase in stem height in transgenic plants is encompassed by the invention, particularly a stem height of at least about 1-1 times to at least about 3 times the height of the stem in unprocessed control plants, particularly of at least about 1.5 times to at least about 2 times the height of the Stem in untransformed control plants. The difference in stem height between transgenic and control plants decreases as growth progresses, because the growth rate decreases in plants that are blooming. The terminal height of a transgenic plant can be similar, in this way, to the terminal height of a non-transgenic plant. The transgenic plants comprising the cycD2 chimeric genes of the invention have an increased growth rate, when compared to untransformed plants, resulting in a reduced time required to reach a given dry weight or stem height. "Growth rate", as used herein, refers to the increase in size of a plant or part of plant per day, particularly to increase the stem height per day, and can be calculated as the difference between the size of a lanta or part of a plant at the beginning and end of a period comprising a number of days, particularly 6 to 8 days, divided by the number of days. The increase in the growth rate is expressed, preferably, according to the general definition of increase of a measurable phenotype, but can also be expressed as the ratio between the growth rate of the transgenic plants, versus the growth rate of the untransformed control plants, during the same period, under the same conditions.

As mentioned above, the increase in growth velocity resulting from the introduction of the chimeric genes, particularly the cycD2 chimeric genes of the invention may vary, depending on the plant species or chimeric genes used, and any increase significant in growth rate in transgenic plants is encompassed by the invention, particularly the increase in the rate of growth ranging from about 4% to about 85%, more particularly from about 20%) to about 60%, especially from about 30% up to about 50%. The increase in vegetative growth of a transgenic plant can also be monitored by measuring the length or size of the largest leaf at different times during the growth period while the leaves are still expanding. This measurable phenotype is a measure of the increased maturity of the transgenic plants. The average increase in the length of the largest leaf (defined as the difference between the average length of the largest leaf of transgenic plants and natural type plants multiplied by 1 00 and divided by the average length of the largest leaf of plants of type natural) obtained by introducing the chimeric genes of the invention ranges from about 7 to 31% (average about 17%) early during growth, up to about 3-14% (average about 7%) at half the period of growth again, these increases in the size of the largest leaf, resulting from the introduction of the chimeric genes of the invention, may vary, depending on the plant species or chimeric gene used, and any significant increase in leaf growth or size in transgenic plants is encompassed by the invention. As another object of the invention, the chimeric cell division controlling gene, particularly the cycD2 chimeric genes, can also be introduced into plants to increase root development, particularly to increase the average root length. In general, the increase in the development of the root is parallel to the increase in the vegetative part above the ground (stem, leaves, flowers) and can vary from approximately 40% to approximately 70%, but again these increases may vary depending on the species of plant or chimeric gene used, and any significant increase, particularly a statistically significant increase in root development, is encompassed by the invention. Still another objective of the invention, the chimeric gene controlling cell division, particularly the cycD2 chimeric genes, can also be introduced into plants to increase the size as well as the number of flowers, particularly the number of fertilized flowers, and the number of fertilized eggs in each flower. As a result of the increase in the number of fertilized flowers, the number of fertilized ovules in each flower (generally leading to a greater number of seeds per plant), it is clear that an increase in seed production per plant can also be obtained. It is clear that the increase in the number of flowers and ovules per flower, as well as the increase in seed production may vary, depending on the species of plant transformed with the cell division controlling chimeric genes of the invention or the chimeric genes used. . Normal increases in the size of the flowers resulting from the introduction of a chimeric gene comprising a DNA region encoding CycD2 under the control of a CaMV35S promoter ranges from at least about 4% to at least about 30%, particularly at least about 10% up to at least about 20%. Normal increases in the number of flowers vary from approximately at least 20% to at least approximately 50%, particularly from about 24% to about 45%, while increases in the number of seeds / plants (expressed as a basis in weight) are in a range from at least about 5% to at least about 55%, particularly from less about 10% to at least about 30%, more particularly about 25%. Still in another embodiment of the invention, the cell division controlling chimeric gene, particularly the cycD2 chimeric genes, can also be introduced into plants or their seeds to accelerate the germination. It has been found that the transgenic seeds comprising the cycD2 chimeric genes of the invention can germinate at least between about 8 to about 16 h faster than the wild-type controls. Moreover, the aforementioned chimeric genes can also be introduced into plants to decrease the average number of days required to achieve the development of an inflorescence, thus effectively reducing the time required to initiate flowering. The transgenic plants comprising the cycD2 chimeric genes of the invention thus reach maturity, particularly the flowering stage, sooner, but have the normal size of a flowering plant. The current reduction in the time required to reach the blooming stage may depend on the species of plant or chimeric genes used. Typically, the transgenic plants harboring the chimeric gene comprising a region of DNA encoding CycD2 under the control of a CaMV35S promoter exhibit a reduction in the time required to flower from at least about 3% up to 11 1 -12%), particularly at less approximately 4% up to 7%. In another particularly preferred embodiment, a chimeric gene comprising a region of transcribed DNA encoding CycD3 under the control of a plant-expressible promoter, preferably a constitutive promoter, particularly a CaMV35S promoter, such as a chimeric gene comprising the nucleotide sequence of the chimeric gene cycD3 of pCRK9, is introduced into a plant cell to obtain transgenic plants with architecture or altered morphological features, particularly with altered size of organs or specific parts of plants, more particularly, with altered flower size and morphology, such as flowers with petals elongated and / or enlarged. Transgenic plants transformed with a chimeric gene comprising a region of DNA encoding CycD3 under the control of a plant-expressible promoter (and the progeny thereof) exhibit an increase in flower size from about 31% to about 44%) . Moreover, these transgenic plants also bloom after the wild-type plants, corresponding to an increase in flowering time from about 5% to about 20%, particularly about 8% to about 16%. In another embodiment of the invention, the functional level of the cell division controlling protein is increased, capable of phosphorylating a RB-like protein or ligating the pocket domain of Rb-like proteins, particularly cyclin D type, to obtaining a plant with growth rate or altered architecture, by integrating a chimeric gene into the genome of the cells of the plant, comprising the following operably linked DNA fragments: a) an expressible promoter region in plant, particularly a promoter region CaMV35S, b) a region of transcribed DNA encoding a protein, which, when expressed, increases the functional level of a cell-dividing-controlling protein, preferably by coding for a cell-dividing-controlling protein or part of a mutant cell-dividing-controlling protein , more preferably encoding a type D mutant cyclin or part of a type D cyclin, particularly encoding a type D cyclin, which has a mutation in a cyclin box (quite particularly a substitution of amino acid 185 or amino acid 1 55 of a type D cyclin, especially E 185A or K1 55A), or a type D cyclin, wherein the PEST sequences are removed, particularly which has been suppressed C-terminally to remove the PEST sequences, or a type D cyclin, where the lxCxE ligation motif has been changed or deleted, particularly where the C residue of the motif LxCxE ligation has been suppressed; and optionally c) a 3 'end formation and functional polyadenylation signal in plant cells. Although it is not intended to limit the invention to one mode of action, it is believed that mutant cell-controlling proteins exert their effects by sequestering inhibitors or antagonists of functional, normal cell-dividing control proteins. It is clear from this description that chimeric genes comprising a region of transcribed DNA encoding other type D cyclins, particularly cyclins derived from plants of the CycD group, can be used to obtain similar effects. These genes can be obtained from other species or plant varieties, by different methods including hybridization using available DNAs encoding CycD1, CycD2 or CycD3 as probes and hybridization conditions with reduced stringency, or methods based on polymerase chain reaction using oligonucleotides based on the available nucleotide sequences of type D cyclins, preferably oligonucleotides having a nucleotide sequence corresponding to the sequences encoding consensus amino acid sequences, particularly oligonucleotides having a nucleotide sequence corresponding to the sequences encoding conservative amino acid sequences within the cyclin box for each group of cyclins. These conservative amino acid sequences can be deduced from available aligned DNA encoding such amino acid sequences. A particularly preferred combination of oligonucleotides for PCR amplification of cyclins of plants of type D 1 is an oligonucleotide selected from the group of oligonucleotides having the DNA sequence of SEQ ID No. 7, SEQ ID No. 8 or SEQ ID No. 9 and an oligonucleotide selected from the group of oligonucleotides having the DNA sequence of SEQ ID No. 10 or SEQ ID No. 1 1. A particularly preferred combination of oligonucleotides for PCR amplification of cyclins from plants of type D2 is an oligonucleotide selected from the group of oligonucleotides having the DNA sequence of SEQ ID No. 1 2 or SEQ ID No. 1 3 and an oligonucleotide selected from the group of oligonucleotides having the DNA sequence of SEQ ID No. 14 or SEQ ID No. 1 5. A particularly preferred combination of oligonucleotides for PCR amplification of cyclins from plants of type D3 is an oligonucleotide selected from the group of oligonucleotides having the sequence of DNA of SEQ ID No. 16, SEQ ID No. 1, or SEQ ID No. 1 8 and an oligonucleotide selected from the group of oligonucleotides having the DNA sequence of SEQ ID No. 19 or SEQ ID No. 20. The fragment of Amplified DNA is then used to classify a cDNA or genomic library (under severe conditions) to isolate the full-length clones. Alternatively, additional genes can be obtained by coding cyclins derived from plants by techniques such as, but not limited to. functional complementation of yeast strains deficient in cyclin G 1 -S conditional, as described by Soni et al. , (1995) and Dahl et al. (1995) or by using the system of two yeast hybrids (Fields and Song, 1989) to isolate DNA sequences encoding cyclins that bind to the pocket domain of Rb-like proteins as described supra. It is further known that some plants contain more than one gene encoding a type D cyclin from the same subgroup (for example, tobacco contains at least two genes of the CycD3 subgroup) and it is clear that these variants can be used within the scope of the invention. Furthermore, type D cyclins, which have an amino acid sequence, which is essentially similar to those described in this invention, such as D-type mutant cyclins can also be used for the same effect. With respect to "amino acid sequences" ", essentially similar means that when the two relevant sequences are aligned, the percentage of sequence identity - that is, the number of positions with identical amino acid residues, divided by the number of residues in the shorter of the two sequences - is greater than 80%, preferably greater than 90%. The alignment of the two amino acid sequences is performed by the Wilbur and Lipmann algorithm (Wilbur and Lipmann, 1983), using a window size of 20 amino acids, a word length of 2 amino acids, and an orifice penalty of 4. Computer-aided analysis and interpretation of the data, including sequence alignment as described above, can be conveniently performed using the lntelligeneticsM R Suite programs (Intelligenetics Inc., CA).

It is clear that any DNA sequence encoding a cell division controlling protein, particularly a type D cyclin, can be used to construct the cell division controlling chimeric genes of the invention, especially DNA sequences, which are partially or completely synthesized by the man. It is also clear that other plant-expressible promoters, particularly constitutive promoters, such as the opine synthase promoters of the Agrobacterium Ti or Ri plasmids, particularly a nopaline synthase promoter can be used to obtain similar effects. Moreover, in light of the existence of variant forms of the CaMV35S promoter, as is known to the skilled artisan, the objective of the invention can be achieved also by employing these alternative CaMV35S promoters, such as those described by Hull and Howell, Virology, 86, pg. 482 (1987). It is a further object of the invention to provide plants with altered morphology or architecture, restricted to specific organs or tissues by using tissue-specific or organ-specific promoters to control DNA expression by encoding a cell-dividing-controlling protein, particularly a cyclin. of type D. Such tissue-specific or organ-specific promoters are well known in the art and include but are not limited to seed-specific promoters (eg, WO89 / 03887), organ-primord specific promoters (An et al. , 1996), stem-specific promoters (Keller et al., 1988), leaf-specific promoters (Hudspeth et al., 1989), mesophyll-specific promoters (such as Rubisco light-inducible promoters), specific promoters. Root (Keller et al., 1989), tuber-specific promoters (Keil et al., 1989), specific promoters of vascular tissues ares (Peleman et al., 1989), meristem-specific promoters (such as, the gene promoter SHOOTMERISTEMLESS (STM), Long et al. , 1996), primordia-specific promoter (such as, the promoter of the CycD3 gene from Antirrhinum, Doonan et al., 1998) and the like. In another embodiment of the invention, the expression of a chimeric gene encoding a cell division controlling protein can be controlled at will by the application of an appropriate chemical inducer, by operably linking the DNA region encoding the partition controlling protein to a promoter whose expression is induced by a chemical compound, such as the gene promoter described in European patent publication "EP" 0332104, or the gene promoter described in WO 90/08826. In yet another embodiment of the invention, the expression of a chimeric gene encoding a cell division controlling protein can be controlled by the use of site-specific recombinases and their corresponding cis-acting sequences, for example, by inserting between the expressible promoter. in plant and the transcribed region encoding the cell division controlling protein, an unrelated nucleotide sequence (preferably with transcription and / or translation termination signals) flanked by the cis-acting sequences recognized by a site recombinase specific (for example, lox or FRT sites); providing the plant cells comprising this chimeric gene with the site-specific recombinase (e.g., Cre or FLP), so that the inserted unrelated nucleotide sequence is eliminated by recombination, thereby allowing the chimeric gene controlling the division cellular is expressed. It is thought that morphological alterations obtained by increased expression of cell division controlling proteins, particularly type D cyclins in plants due to the introduction of a chimeric gene comprising a DNA region encoding a cell division controlling protein, particularly a low D type cyclin control of an expressible promoter in plant, can be intensified, by removal, adaptation or inactivation of PEST sequences. The PEST sequences are sequences of amino acids which are rich in proline, glutamate or aspartate and serine or threonine, located between positively charged flanking residues, which are involved in a rapid change of the protein comprising such sequences (Tyers et al., 1 992; Cross, 1 988; Wittenberg and Reed, 1988; Salama et ai. , 1 994). The removal of these PEST sequences in yeast cyclins stabilizes cyclins in vivo (Pines, 1995). PEST regions can be identified by computer analysis, using computer program packages, such as PESTFI ND (Rogers et al., 1986; Rechsteiner, 1990), the mutation of a DNA encoding a cell division-controlling protein with altered PEST sequences is within the scope of the skilled artisan using methods, such as those described, for example, by Sambrook et al. (1989).

Furthermore, it is expected that the quantitative effects of the phenotypic alterations can be modulated - that is, intensified or repressed - by the expression of chimeric genes that encode endogenous cellular division controlling proteins, particularly chimeric genes that encode endogenous CycD as an alternative to use heterologous genes. coding similar proteins from other plants. Preferably, heterologous genes are used, particularly heterologous genes encoding similar proteins with less than about 65%, preferably less than about 75%, more preferably less than about 65% identity of the amino acid sequence for the partition controlling protein endogenous cellular In another aspect of this invention, the morphology of plants can be altered by decreasing the expression of a functional cell-division controlling protein, particularly a type D cyclin. This can be achieved using, for example, antisense, ribozyme or co-RNA techniques. suppression. To this end, a chimeric gene comprising a region of transcribed DNA, which is transcribed to an RNA, the production of which reduces, inhibits or prevents the expression of a cell division controlling protein, particularly a type D cyclin within the cells of plants, is introduced into plant cells, particularly stably integrated into the genome of plant cells. In one embodiment of this aspect, the transcribed DNA region of the qimeric gene encodes an antisense RNA, which is complementary to at least part of a sense mRNA encoding a cell division controlling protein, particularly a type D cyclin. Antisense RNA thus comprises a region which is complementary to a part of the sense mRNA, preferably to a continuous stretch thereof of at least 50 bases in length, particularly of at least 100 to 1000 bases in length. The antisense RNA can be complementary to any part of the mRNA sequence: it can be complementary to the sequence proximal to the covered site or 5 'end, to part or all of the leader region, to a region of introns or exons (or to a region that bridges an exon and an intron) of the sense pre-mRNA, to the region that bridges the non-coding and coding region, to all or part of the coding region including the 3 'end of the coding region, and / or to all or part of the 3 'region or trailer. The sequence similarity between the antisense Rna and the sense RNA complement encoding a cell division controlling protein should be in the range of at least about 75% up to about 100%. In another embodiment of this aspect, the transcribed DNA region of the chimeric gene encodes a specific RNA enzyme or so-called ribozyme (e.g., WO 89/05852) capable of highly specific cut-off of the sense mRNA encoding a division-controlling protein. cellular, particularly a type D cyclin. Still in another embodiment, the level of a functional cell-dividing controlling protein, particularly a type D cyclin, can be decreased by the expression of chimeric gene comprising a region of DNA encoding a protein or polypeptide, which, when expressed, reduces the level of a cell-dividing-controlling protein, particularly a D-type cyclin, or inhibits the cell-dividing-controlling protein, particularly type D cyclin, to exert its function within plant cells . Preferably, the chimeric gene encodes an antibody that binds to a cell division controlling protein, particularly a type D cyclin. Reduce the level or functional level of a cell division controlling protein, particularly a type D cyclin within the cells of a transgenic plant, comprising the chimeric genes of this embodiment of the invention, results in altered architecture, particularly in a diminished stem height, a decrease in the growth rate or a delay in the flowering of the transgenic plants when compared to plants without transformation, which grew under the same conditions. The effect obtained may vary, depending on the species of plant or chimeric genes used, and any effect on the architecture and / or growth rate, particularly a decrease in stem height or growth rate, or an increase in the time required to develop an inflorescence, it is encompassed by the invention. The decrease in growth rate due to decreasing the level of a cell-dividing controlling protein, preferably a D-type cyclin, particularly a CYCD2-like cyclin, ranges from about 30% to about 60%, particularly from about 35% to about fifty%. The decrease in stem height due to decreasing the level of a cell-dividing controlling protein, preferably a D-type cyclin, particularly a CYCD2-like cyclin, ranges from about 10% to about 60%, particularly from about 30% up to about 50%, more particularly around 40%. The increase in flowering time due to decreasing the level of a cell division controlling protein, preferably a D-type cyclin, particularly a D-type cyclin, ranges from about 10% to about 40%, particularly from about 1 5% up to approximately 38%. The chimeric gene controlling cell division may also include regulatory sequences and other sequences, such as leader sequences [eg, Petunia's cap22L leader or TMV omega leader (Gallie et al., 1987)], polyadenylation and termination signals 3 'transcript (eg, the octopine gene synthase [De Greve et al., 1981]), from the nopaline synthase gene [Depicker et al. , 1982] or of the gene T-DNA 7 [Velten and Scell, 1985] and the like [Guerineau et al. , 1 991; Proudfoot, 1991; Safacon et al. , 1992; Mogen et al. , 1990; Munroe et al. , 1990; Bailas et al. , 1989; Joshi et al. , 1987], the plant translation initiation consensus sequences [Joshi, 1987], neutrons [Luehrsen and Walbot, 1991] and the like, operably linked to the nucleotide sequence of the chimeric gene controlling cell division. Preferably, the recombinant DNA comprising the chimeric gene controlling the cell division is accompanied by a chimeric marker gene. The chimeric marker gene may comprise a marker DNA that is operably linked at its 5 'end to a plant-expressible promoter, preferably a constitutive promoter, such as the CaMV35S promoter, or a light-inducible promoter, such as the promoter of the promoter. gene that encodes Rubisco's small subunit; and operably linked at its 3 'end to polyadenylation signals and 3' end formation of suitable plant transcripts. It is expected that the choice of the labeled DNA is not critical, and any suitable marker DNA can be used. For example, a marker DNA can encode a protein that provides a distinguishable color for the transformed plant cell, such as gene A1 (Meyer et al., 1987), can provide herbicidal resistance to the transformed plant cell, such as the gene bar, encoding phosphinothricin resistance (EP 0 242,246), or can provide antibiotic resistance to the transformed cells, such as, the aac gene (6 '), coding resistance to gentamicin (WO94 / 01 560). Although it is clear that the invention can be applied essentially to all species and varieties of plants, the invention will be especially suitable for altering the architecture or for increasing the growth rate of plants with a commercial value. It is expected that the intensifications in the vegetative growth will be very pronounced on plants which have not undergone extensive cultivation and selection for rapid vegetative growth. The invention will be particularly relevant for plants, which grow in greenhouses, particularly to reduce the time required for the greenhouse plants to reach the desired stage of development, such as but not •) limiting flowering, fruit fixation or seed fixation. The invention will also be relevant to intensify the growth rate of trees, particularly softwood trees, such as pine, poplar, eucalyptus and the like. Another important application of the invention covers the expansion of effective area, where plants can be grown by reducing the time required to reach the economically important stage of development. Particularly, the preferred plants to which the invention can be applied are corn, rapeseed, flaxseed, wheat, grass, alfalfa, legumes, a brassica vegetable, tomato, lettuce, rice, barley, potato, tobacco, beet, sunflower, and Ornamental plants, such as, carnation, chrysanthemum, roses, tulips and the like. A recombinant DNA comprising a chimeric gene controlling cell division can be stably incorporated into the nuclear genome of a cell of a plant. The gene transfer can be carried out with a vector that is a disassembled Ti-plasmid, comprising a chimeric gene of the invention, and carried by Agrobacterium. This transformation can be carried out using the methods described, for example, in EP 0, 16.718. Alternatively, any type of vector can be used to transform the cell of the plant, apply methods such as direct gene transfer (as described, for example, in EP 0,233,247), pollen-mediated transformation (as described, for example , in EP 0,270, 356, WO 85/01 856 and US 4,684.61 1), virus-mediated transformation of plant RNA (as described, for example, in EP 0,067,553 and US 4,407,956), liposome-mediated transformation (as it is described, for example, in US 4,536,475), and the like. Other methods, such as the bombardment of microprojectiles as described, for corn by Fromm et al. (1990) and Gordon-Kamm et al. (1 990), they are also suitable. Cells of monocotyledonous plants, such as major cereals, can also be transformed using compact embryogenic tissue injured and / or degraded by enzymes capable of forming compact embryogenic calli, or injured and / or degraded immature embryos as described in WO 92/09696. The resulting transformed plant cell can then be used to regenerate a transformed plant in a conventional manner. The obtained transformed plant can be used in a conventional culture scheme to produce more transformed plants with the same characteristics or to introduce the chimeric gene controlling the cell division of the invention into other varieties of the same or related plant species. The seeds obtained from the transformed plants contain the chimeric gene controlling the cell division of the invention as a stable genomic insert. The following non-limiting examples describe the construction of the chimeric genes controlling cell division and the use of such genes for modifying the architecture and growth rate of plants. Unless stated otherwise in the Examples, all recombinant DNA techniques are performed according to standard protocols as described in Sambrook et al. (1989) Molecular Cloning- A Laboratory Manual, (Molecular cloning: a laboratory manual), Second Edition, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, NY and in Volumes 1 and 2 of Ausubel et al. (1994) Current Protocols in Molecular Biology, Current Protocols in Molecular Biology, Current Protocols, USA. Standard materials and methods for molecular work in plants are described in Plant Molecular Biology Labfax (1993) by R.D.D. Croy, jointly published by BIOS Scientific Publications Ltd (UK) and Blackwell Scientific Publications, UK. Throughout the description and examples, reference is made to the following sequences: SEQ ID No. 1: cDNA encoding CYCD21 of Nicotiana tabacum SEQ ID No.2: cDNA coding CYCD3; 1 of Nicotiana tabacum SEQ ID No.3: cDNA coding CYCD3; 2 of Nicotiana tabacum SEQ ID No.4: cDNA coding CYCD1; 1 of Helianthus tuberosus SEQ ID No .5: cDNA encoding CYCD3; 1 from Helianthus tuberosus SEQ ID No.6: T-DNA from pGSV5 SEQ ID No.7: PCR primer 1 SEQ ID No.8: PCR primer 2 SEQ ID No.9: primer from PCR 3 SEQ ID No. 10: PCR primer 4 SEQ ID No. 11: PCR primer 5 SEQ ID No. 12: PCR primer 6 SEQ ID No. 13: PCR primer 7 SEQ ID No. 14: primer PCR 8 SEQ ID No. 15: PCR primer 9 SEQ ID No. 16: PCR primer 10 SEQ ID No. 17: PCR primer 11 SEQ ID No. 18: PCR primer 12 SEQ ID No. 19: primer PCR 13 SEQ ID No.20: PCR starter 14 SEQ ID No.21: cDNA encoding CYCD2 from Zea Mays Plasmids pCEC1 and pCRK9 have been deposited in Belgian Coordinated Collections of Microorganisms (BCCM) Laboratorium voor Moleculaire Biologie-Plasmidecollectie (LBP) Universiteit Gent K.L. Ledeganckstraat 35 B-9000 Gent, Belgium on March 11, 1997 and have been assigned the following deposit numbers: MC1061 (pCEC1): BCCM / LMBP3657 DH5a (pCRK9): BCCM / LMBP3656 Plasmid pBlueScript-ZM18 has been deposited in Belgian Coordinated Collections of Microorganisms (BCCM) Laboratorium voor Moleculaire Biologie-Plasmidecollectie (LBP) Universiteit Gent K.L. Ledeganckstraat 35 B-9000 Gent, Belgium on March 19, 1998, under deposit number BCCM / LMBP 3866.

EXAMPLES Example 1. Construction of the Chimeric Genes 1..1 Construction of the CaMV35S-AthcycD2 Chimeric Gene and Inclusion in a T-DNA Vector A? / Col-Sacl fragment of 1298 bp comprising the DNA encoding CYCD2 from A. thaliana (treating the nucleotide sequence of EMBL Accession No. X83370 from the position of nucleotide 194 to the position of nucleotide 1332) with Klenow polymerase to blunt the protruding ends, and ligate to pART7 linearized Sma \ (Gleave, 1992), producing the plasmid pCEC1. In this form, a chimeric gene flanked by Not sites was constructed, where the DNA encoding CYCD2 was operably linked to a CaMV35S promoter from the isolated CabbB-J 1 (Harpster et al., 1988) and a 3'ocs region. (MacDonald et al., 1 991). The chimeric gene was then inserted between the T-DNA border of a T-DNA vector, also comprising a selectable chimeric marker gene. To this end, the chimeric gene cycD2 was cut from pCEC1, using Notl, and ligated into pART27 linearized with Notl (Gleave, 1992) to create pCEC5. pART27 comprises a selectable chimeric marker gene consisting of the following operably linked fragments: a noplain synthase gene promoter, a neo coding region and the 3 'end of a nopaline synthase gene (An et al., 1988) . Alternatively, the chimeric cycD2 gene is cut from pCEC1 using an appropriate restriction enzyme (e.g., Notl) and introduced into the polylinker between the T-DNA border sequences of the T-DNA vector pGSV5, together with a chimeric selectable marker gene (pSSU- £> ar30ocs; De Almeida et al., 1989) producing pCEC5b. PGSV5 was derived from plasmid pGSC1700 (Corneissen and Vandewiele, 1989), but it differs from the latter in that it does not contain a beta-lactamase gene and that its T-DNA is characterized by the sequence of SEQ I D No. 6. 1 .2 Construction of the chimeric CaMV35S-AthcycD3 gene and inclusion in a T-DNA vector CycD3 cDNA was isolated as a Bsll-Dral fragment of 1335 bp, blunting the end by treatment with Klenow polymerase (having the nucleotide sequence of Accession No. EMBL X83371 from the position of nucleotide 1 04 to the position of nucleotide 1439) and inserted into the Smal site of pUC1 8, to create pRS 14a. This clone carries the complete coding sequence of cycD3, with the translation initiation codon located immediately adjacent to the Smal site cut from pUC 18 in such orientation that the SacI site of pUC18 is at the 5 'end of the cycD3 cDNA and the site ßamH I is at the 3 'end. The 1.35 kb Sacl-SamHI fragment of pRS 14a was isolated and ligated to the approximately 26.6 kb Sacl-SamHl fragment of pSLJ94 (Jones et al., 1992), generating pCRK9. In this form, a chimeric gene was constructed in which the DNA encoding the cycD3 coding region of A. thaliana was operably linked to a CaMV35S promoter and the 3'ocs region. In pCRK9, the chimeric gene is located between the edges of T-DNA, accompanied by a neo-selectable chimeric gene (Jones et al., 1992). Alternatively, the cycD3 chimeric gene is cut from pRS 14a using appropriate restriction enzymes and introduced into the polylinker between the T-DNA border sequences of the T-DNA vector pGSV5, together with a selectable chimeric marker gene (pSSU). -óar-3'ocs; De Almeida et al., 1989) producing pCRK9b.

Example 2. Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of tobacco plants with the T-DNA vectors of Example 1. The T-DNA vectors pCEC5 and pCRK9 were introduced into Agrobacterium tumefaciens LBA4404 (Klapwijk et al., 1980), by electroporation as described by Walkerpeach and Velten (1995) and the transformants were selected using spectinomycin and tetracycline respectively. The T-DNA vectors pCECdb and pCRK9b are introduced into A. tumefaciens C58C 1 RifR by triparental coupling (Ditta et al., 1 980). The Agrobacterium strains were used to transform Nicotiana tabacum var Xanthi, applying the leaf disc transformation method as described in An et al. (1985). Eight tobacco plants transformed with pCRK9 (designated 1 K9, 2K9, 3K9, 4K9, 8K9, 10K9, 17K9, 19K9 and 28K9) and eleven tobacco plants transformed with pCEC5 (designated C8 lines 1 to 3 and 5 to 12) were generated. .

Transformed plants were analyzed by pCRK9 T-DNA for the copy number of the transgenes inserted by Southern hybridization using the pRS 14a labeled cDNA insert as a probe. Lines 2K9, 3K9 and 4K9 each one had obtained 1 copy of the transgene, while the line 1 K9 contained three copies of the transgene. Transformed plants were analyzed by pCEC5 T-DNA for the copy number of transgenes inserted by Southern hybridization using DNA digested with fíamHI prepared from these plants and fragment? / Col-EcoRI 0.7 kb labeled from J22 cDNA (comprising part of the region coding of cycD2; Soni et al., 1995). The lines C8-2, C8-3, C8-5, C8-8, C8-1, C8-9, C8-1 0, C8-1 1, C8-12 all had a copy of the transgene, line C8 -7 had two copies, line C8-6 had three copies and line C8-1 had four copies of transgene. The TOs (primary transformants) were self-fertilized and the seeds were allowed to settle (seeds T1). Plants that grew from T1 seeds were designated C8-T1 -X, where X stands for the line number of the original transformant. The seeds of T1 plants were referred to as T2 seeds; the plants that grew from such seeds were called C8-T2-X, where X is again the line number of the original transformant. Whenever generation is not mentioned, plants grew from T1 seeds. The Norther analysis confirmed the transcription of the transgenes in at least lines C8-1, C8-3, C8-7, 3K9, 4K9 and 8K9.

Example 3. Phenotypic analysis of transformed tobacco plants 3. 1 . Tobacco plants comprising the chimeric gene CaMV35S-AthCvcD2 The seeds of primary transformants (TO plants) were sterilized on their surface in 1 0% bleach for 15 minutes and thoroughly washed in sterile water. The seeds sterilized on their surface were germinated in GM medium containing kanamycin at a final concentration of 100 μg / ml. The seeds were plated for 5 days at 4 ° C (vernalization) and then moved to 23 ° C in a growth chamber. All the moments refer to the day of placement in the growth chamber. Eighteen days after movement to the growth chamber (ie, 23 days in total), seedling resistant plants were transplanted into seed trays containing soil, and grown under a photoperiod of 18 h in a growth room. After an additional 10 days, these plants were transferred in 7.62 cm pots and after an additional 15 days to 20.32 cm pots, where they remained for the rest of the experiment. The 7.62 cm and 20.32 cm pots were incubated in a greenhouse supplemented with additional light to achieve a photoperiod of 18 hours. The plants were placed in a random design inside the greenhouse. The measurements were started two days later (that is, after 45 days or after 27 days on earth, referred to as week 1), and they were repeated every week for seven weeks, when it was appropriate. The following number of plants was analyzed for each line: 22 plants for line C8-1, 7 plants for line C8-2, 22 plants for line C8-3, 8 plants for line C8-5, 6 plants for the C8-6 line, 22 plants for the C8-7 line, 5 plants for the C8-8 line, 6 plants for the C8-9 line, 4 plants for the C8-1 0 line, 6 plants for the line C8-1 1, 5 plants for line C8-12, 34 plants for unprocessed control (natural type). The following parameters were analyzed: height of the plants from the surface of the earth to the highest point (ie, growth tip, summarized in Table 1 as average height ± standard deviation in cm); length of the largest leaf at defined times (summarized in Table 2 as mean length + standard deviation in cm); time (summarized in Table 3 as average time ± standard deviation in days) in which an inflorescence meristem with the natural eye (inflorescences of 0.25 cm and 1 cm) is visible; height at which an inflorescence meristem is visible (summarized in Table 3 as average length ± standard deviation in cm); length of the petal tube of the flowers; width of the petal tube collar (summarized in Table 3 as average length and width ± standard deviation in mm); total number of seed pods per plant; and average seed production (on a weight basis) per plant. The transgenic plants exhibited an increased growth rate, apparent from the seedling stage, resulting in a higher average stem height (Table 1). In week 3, all populations of transgenic lines are significantly larger than the untransformed controls (t test, 95% confidence level), while lines C8-1, C8-2, C8-3, C8- 5, C8-1 1 are significantly larger than the untransformed controls at a confidence level of 99%. The increased growth rate also resulted in an average in larger hohas at the indicated times, which corresponds to a period when leaf expansion is continuing (Table 2) and larger flowers, where the petal tube of the plants Transgenic is on average longer than the tube of flower petals in untransformed plants. The number of flowers in transgenic plants was also increased, as well as the number of fertilized flowers, resulting in a greater number of seed pods and a higher seed production per plant (data summarized in Table 4A). Moreover, the number of seeds per pod was higher in the transgenic plants than in the wild type control plants. Abnormal seed production on the C8-T1 -6 line was due to the excessively high percentage of abscission of the flowers. In this way, it can be concluded that the constitutive expression of DNA encoding AthCycD2, leads to an increase in both the number of seed pods and the total production of seeds on a per plant basis. Finally, the root development was compared in wild type seedlings and transgenic seedlings (Table 4B). The seeds were sterilized, planted with GM medium without selection, vernalized and then stored in the vertical position in the growth room. The length of the root was measured 9 days and 13 days after vernalization, and the presence of lateral roots was recorded. The seeds of the line C8-T1 -7 and C8-T2-2 (homologous) were used. Line C8-T1 -7 has two inserts which segregate approximately 1: 5: 1 in kanamycin plates. 35 seedlings of this line were grown and of these, three appeared to represent the growth rate observed in wild-type seedlings. The data of these seedlings were recorded separately nine days after the vernalization. The t test was applied to determine the importance of the average difference and the level of significance is indicated in the table. ns denotes no significant difference between the samples. Thus, it seems that the increase in vegetative growth in the apical parts is balanced by an equal increase in the development of the roots.

Table 1. Average height (in cm) of transformed tobacco plants comprising CaMV35S-AtcycD2 oo Table 2. Average leaf length (in cm) of the largest leaf of transformed tobacco plants comprising CaMV35S-AtcycD2 Table 3A. Floral development [mean inflorescence height of 0.25 cm or 1 cm (in cm), average time required to reach the development of an inflorescence of 0.25 or 1 cm (in days after vernalization)] in tobacco transfected with Ca V35SathCycD2 or Table 3B. Floral development [average flower size, ie length and width (mm)] in tobacco transformed with CaMV35SathCycD2. The length and width of five flowers of each plant were measured and the average length or width of the flower was calculated for each transgenic line. The values for each independent transgenic line were compared to the wild type using the t test. The table reveals the level of probability that the results are statistically significant purchased with the natural type, ns means not significant.

Table 4A. Average number of seed pods per plant, average weight of seed content of six pods (g), average seed yield per plant (g), in tobacco transformed with CaMV35SathCycD2 Table 4B. Comparison of root development in natural and transgenic seedlings 3. 2. Tobacco plants comprising the guimeric gene CaMV35S- AthCvcD3 Plants comprising the chimeric CaMV35S-AthCycD3 genes were grown from the T1 seeds and treated as described under 3.1. The measurements were started 49 days after germination, with intervals of approximately 7 days. The following number of plant lines per line was analyzed: 1 1 plants for line 1 K9; 1 9 plants for the 3K9 line, 20 plants for the 4K9 line and 18 plants for the control without transforming. The following parameters were analyzed: the length and width of the petal tube (in cm) and the time (in days) in which at least 75% of the plants have reached at least the stage where an inflorescence develops clearly, summarized in Table 5.

Table 5. Summary of the measurements in tobacco plants comprising the chimeric gene CaMV35S-AthCycD3.

These transgenic plants had larger flowers, where the tube of pétlaos of the transgenic plants was on average larger than the tube of flower petals in untransformed plants, and they also required more time to reach the stage where an inflorescence clearly develops .

Example 4. Isolation of cycD-homologous genes from other plants A cDNA library was constructed, made of tobacco BY-2 cells that grow exponentially in a Lambda Zap Express vector (Stratagene). Approximately 7.5 x 10 5 library clones were plated, and replicate spots of each plate were made using Hybond N + nylon membranes (Amersham Int.), Which were then fixed by baking at 80 ° C for two hours. Membranes were hybridized with cycD2 or cycD3 heterologous probes labeled with a32-P dCTP by random initiation. The cycD3 probe comprised a cycD3 fragment of A. thaliana (405 bp Hinccl l-KpnL fragment, the EMBL nucleotide sequence having access No. X83371 from nucleotide position 557 to nucleotide position 962). The cycD2 probe consisted of a 1298 bp Nco-Sacl fragment of cycD2 from A. thaliana (the EMBL nucleotide sequence having accession No. X83370 from nucleotide position 194 to nucleotide position 1 332). Hybridizations of cycD3 were performed at 55 ° C and the membranes were washed for 10 min in 2xSSC / 0.1% SDS twice, followed by a 10 min simple wash in 0.1 SSC / 0.1% SDS before autoradiography. Hybridizations of cycD2 were performed at 48 ° C; the membranes were washed for 10 min in 2x SSC / 0.1% SDS three times.

All washes were performed at room temperature. Single clones of isolated libraries were cut in vivo (according to the manufacturer's protocol) to generate subclones in the fagomido pBK-CMV (Stratagene) and the DNA sequence was determined according to standard methods. The sequence information was analyzed using GCG Software (Genetics Computer Group) (1 994). The cDNA sequences of cycD2; 1, cycD3; 1 and cycD3; 2 of tobacco are represented, respectively in, SEQ ID No. 1, SEQ ID No. 2, SEQ ID No. 3. Another library of polyadenylated RNA cDNA isolated from tubers, roots and leaves of Helianthus tuberosus was made . The cDNA of an oligo primer (dT) was synthesized and ligated into a lambda vector ZAPI I at the EcoR1 site. Approximately 1.25 x 106 clones were platinized, replicate plate spots were made as described above and hybridized using the labeled probes mentioned above. In addition, the spots were sorted with a cycD1 probe, comprising the Xba fragment -Ava of 401 bp gene cycD 1 from A. thaliana (the EMBL nucleotide sequence having access No. X83369 from nucleotide position 312 to the position of nucleotide 71 3). The isolated clones were analyzed as before. The sequence of the cycD 1 genes; 1 and cycD3; 1 of Helianthus tuberosus is represented in SEQ I D No. 4 and SEQ I D No. 5, respectively. Another cDNA library was made from polyadenylated RNA isolated from Zea mays callus material (Pa91 xH99) xH99. The cDNA of an oligo primer (dT) was synthesized and ligated into the lambda vector ZAP1 in the EcoRI site. Approximately 1.25 x 106 clones were platinized, replicate plate spots were made as described above and hybridized using the labeled probes mentioned above. The isolated clones were analyzed as before. The sequence of the cycD2 cDNA of Zea mays is represented in SEQ I D No. 21.

Example 5. Construction of the anti-sense and anti-sense genes. A 1298 bp Nco-Sacl fragment comprising the DNA encoding CYCD2 from A. thaliana (having the EMBL accession nucleotide sequence No. X83370 from nucleotide position 1 94 to nucleotide position 1 332) was treated with Klenow polymerase to detach the protruding ends, and join pART7 linearized with Smal (Gleave, 1992). A plasmid was selected in which the inserted DNA fragment was in such orientation, that the DNA encoding the CYCD2 was introduced in the inverse manner between a CaMV35S promoter of the CabbB-J1 isolate (Harpster et al., 1988) and a region 3'ocs (MacDonald et al., 1 991), so that an antisense RNA is produced on the expression. The antisense chimeric gene was then inserted between the T-DNA border of a T-DNA vector, also comprising a selectable chimeric marker gene. To this end, the chimeric gene cycD2 was cut from pCEC2, using Notl, and ligated to pART27 linearized with Notl.

(Gleave et al., 1992) to create pCEC6. The tobacco plants were transformed with these chimeric genes as described in Example 2.

Example 6. Analysis of the transformants Transformed plants were treated with the chimeric genes of Example 5 as described in Example 3. 1 and the following number of plants were analyzed: 7 plants for the C9-2 line and 6 plants for the line C9-7. The following parameters were analyzed: height of the plants from the soil surface to the highest point (summarized in Table 6 as average height and standard deviation in cm); length of the largest leaf at defined times (summarized in Table 7 as average length and standard deviation in cm); time (summarized in Table 8 as average time i standard deviation in days) in which an inflorescence meristem is visible (summarized in Table 8 as average length l standard deviation in cm). The transgenic plants exhibited a decreased, apparent growth rate of the seedling stage, resulting in a smaller average stem height (Table 6). The rate of decreased growth also resulted on average in smaller leaves at the indicated times, which corresponded to a period when leaf expansion is continuing (Table 7).

Table 6. Average height (in cm) of transformed tobacco plants comprising CaMV35S antisense cycD2 Table 7. Difference in the average leaf length of the largest leaf of transformed tobacco plants comprising CaMV35S antisense cycD2 and the average leaf length of the largest leaf of untransformed tobacco plants (in cm).

Table 8A. Average flower size (mm), average height to inflorescence (cm), average time required to reach the development of an inflorescence (days) in tobacco transformed with CaMV35S antisense cycD2.

Only one plant developed an inflorescence during the monitoring period.

Table 8B. The effect of antisense cycD2 expression on the length of the transgenic tobacco flower was analyzed in other lines (generation T1) and compared statistically with the wild type using the student's t-test. The length of five flowers of each plant was measured and the average flower length was calculated for each transgenic line. The values for each independent transgenic line were compared to the wild type using the t test. The table reveals the level of probability that the results are statistically significant compared to the natural type.

Example 7. Transformation of rape seed with the T-DNAs of Example 1 and similar vectors and analysis of the transformed plants.

Hypocotyral explants of Brassica napus are obtained, they were cultivated and transformed essentially as described by De Block et al. (1989), except for the following modifications: - hypocotyral explant cultures are pre-cultured for 1 day in medium A2 [MS, 0.5 g / l of Month (pH 5.7), 1.2% glucose, 0.5% agarose, 1 mg / l of 2,4-D, 0.25 mg / l of naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) and 1 mg (l of 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP)] - the infection medium A3 is MS, 0.5 g / l of Month (pH 5.7), 1.2% glucose, 0.1 mg / l of NAA, 0.75 mg / l of BAP and 0.01 mg / l of gibberellin acid (GA3) - the selection medium A5G is MS, 0.5 g / l of Month (pH 5.7), 1.2% glucose, 40 mg / l of adenine, SO, 0.5 g / l of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), 0.5% agarose, 0.1 mg / i of NAA, 0.75 mg / l of BAP, 0.01 mg / l of GA3, 250 mg / l of carbenicillin, 250 mg / l of triacycline, 5 mg / l of AgNO3 for three weeks After this period, selection continues in medium A5J (similar to A5G but with 3% sucrose) - regeneration medium A6 is MS, 0.5 g / l of Month (pH 5.7 ), 2% sucrose, 40 mg / l adenine, SO4, 0.5 g / l PVP, 0.5% agarose, 0. 0025 mg / i of BAP and 250 mg / l of triacycline. - Healthy shoots are transferred to rooting medium, which was A9: MS concentrated in half, 1.5% sucrose (pH 5.8), 1 00 mg / l triacycline, 0.6%) agar in 1 liter containers . MS means means of Murashige and Skoog (Murashige and Skoog, 1962). The hypocotyral plants are infected with Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain C58C1 FifR carrying a helper Ti plasmid, such as pGV400, which is a derivative of pMP90 (Koncz and Schell, 1986) obtained by inserting a bacterial gene of chloramphenicol resistance bound to a 2.5 kb fragment having homology to the T-DNA vector pGSV5, in pMP90; and a T-DNA vector derived from pGSV5 comprising between the T-DNA borders the chimeric genes of Example 1 and the chimeric marker gene (pCEC5b and pCRK9b). Transgenic rapeseed plants comprising the chimeric genes of the invention exhibit an accelerated vegetative program (increased growth rate), a reduction in the time required to reach the flowering stage, an increased number of flowers and an increased seed production by plant.

Example 8. Transformation of corn plants with the vectors of Example 1 and similar vectors and analysis of the transformed plants. The corn plants are transformed with the vectors of Example 1, according to WO92 / 09696. The transgenic corn plants comprising the chimeric genes of the invention exhibit an accelerated vegetative program (increased growth rate), a reduction in the time required to reach the flowering stage, an increased number of flowers and an increased seed production per plant .

Example 9. Transformation of tomato plants with the vectors of Example 1 and similar vectors and analysis of the transformed plants. The tomato plants are transformed with the vectors of Example 1, according to De Block et al. (1 987). Transgenic tomato plants comprising the chimeric genes of the invention exhibit an accelerated vegetative program (increased growth rate), a reduction in the time required to reach the flowering stage, an increased number of flowers and an increased fruit production per plant .

Example 10. Transformation of lettuce plants with the vectors of Example 1 and similar vectors and analysis of the transformed plants. Lettuce plants are transformed with the vectors of Example 1, according to Micheimore et al. (1987). Transgenic lettuce plants comprising the chimeric genes of the invention exhibit an accelerated vegetative program (increased growth rate), a reduction in the time required to reach the flowering stage, an increased number of flowers and an increased seed production per plant .

Example 1 1. Additional phenotypic analysis of the progeny of the transgenic tobacco lines transformed with the CaMV35SAthCycD2 constructs of Example 3 in segregating and non-segregating populations. Progeny populations (either segregating or non-segregating) of plants from two transgenic tobacco lines transformed with the CaMV35SAthCycD2 constructs (line 2 and line 5 of Example 3) were analyzed for length of time to flower and an increase in the vegetative growth when measuring the average height of the stem or the average dry weight of the plants. The segregation of the transgenes was monitored when establishing their resistance to kanamycin. For segregating populations, 32 plants were analyzed, while for non-segregating populations, they were analyzed 12 plants. The non-transformed population also consisted of 1 2 plants.

The following populations were used: Segregating populations: Line 2 C8-T1 -2 [seeds T1 of primary transformant C8-2; segregate 3: 1 for T-DNA] C8-T2-2 [seeds T2 of plant C8-T1 -2 # 3 itself, which was heme and so the seed segregates 3: 1 for T-DNA] C8-T2 -2 [seeds T2 of a plant cross C8-T1 -2 # 3 with natural plant type using natural type as parent pollen. This seed segregates 1: 1 for T-DNA, and all the plants containing T-DNA are hemecic] Line 5 C8-T1 -5 [seed T1 of primary transformant C8-5; segregates 3: 1 for T-DNA] C8-T2-5 [plant T2 seed C8-T1 -5 # 304 own, which was heme and so the seed segregates 3. 1 for T-DNA] Non-segregating populations Line 2 C8-T2-2 [seed T2 of the plant C8-T1 -2 # 302 proper, which was homologous for T-DNA] Line 5 C8-T2-5 [seed T2 of the plant C8-T1 -5 # 121 crossed with natural type plant using the natural type as father pollen. Plant # 1 21 was homozygous for T-DNA and all seed T2 is hemicy for T-DNA] C8-T2-5 [seed T2 of the plant C8-T1 -5 # 121 own. Plant # 1 21 was homozygous for T-DNA and all seed T2 is homocracy for T-DNA].

The effect of over-expression of CycD2 on the length of time to initiate inflorescence development in transgenic tobacco was measured and statistically compared with values for the same parameter measured for a wild-type control population, using a t test parametric, in which the variances of wt and transgenic populations were not assumed as equals. The length of time for each plant was recorded to develop an inflorescence of 0.5 cm and the average number of days, post-vernalization, was calculated. The values for each transgenic population were compared with the value for the natural population using the t test. The data for the segregating lines were separated into data for the kanamycin-resistant population and the kanamycin-sensitive population. Data for the kanamycin-resistant population were also indicated separately by the homocose sub-population resistant to kanamycin (no longer segregating) and the hemicyc subgroup resistant to kanamycin (additional segregants 3.1). Table 9 summarizes these data. Table 1 0 summarizes the average values of stem heights in non-segregating transgenic lines at different post-vernilization moments, compared to a natural-type population (statistically analyzed). A level of significance of less than 0.05 is considered a highly significant difference between the average height of each transgenic line and the average height of the controls. ns indicates that there is no significant difference between populations. In addition, the biomass of the seedlings of the non-segregating populations mentioned was compared with natural-type seedlings during early vegetative growth. Seedlings were harvested on the indicated days after vernalization and weighed before drying at 70 ° C for 2 days. The average dry weight of the seedlings and the standard deviation were calculated and the results are presented in Table 1 1.

Table 9. The effect of overexpression of CycD2 on the length of time to initiate the development of inflorescence in transgenic tobacco Table 10. Statistical comparison of stem height of transgenic tobacco comprising CaMV35SathCycD2 with natural type controls Table 11. Summary of dry weight measurements (in mg) obtained from non-segregating populations of transgenic seedlings that overexpress CycD2 and wild-type (WT) seedlings at different post-vemilization times. For all cases, the t test indicates that there is a highly significant difference between the average biomass of each transgenic line and the average biomass of the controls. or REFERENCES An eí al. 1985 EMBO J.4: 277-284 An er al., 1988 Binary vectors (binary vectors) In: Gelvin SS, Schilperoort RA, Verma DPS (eds) Plant Molecular Biology Manual pp A3 / 1 -A3 / 19. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht). An ei al., 1996, The Plant Cell 8: 15-30 Ando et al., 1993, Proc. Nati Acad. Sci. 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Acids Res. 13: 6998 Waikerpeach and Veiten 1995 In: Gelvin SS, Schilperoort RA, Verma DPS (eds) Fliant Molecular Biology Manual pp BI / 1 -BI / I 9. Kluwer Academie Publishers, Dordrecht Wilbur and Lipmann 1 983 Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 80: 726 Wimmel et al. 1994 Oncogene 9: 995-997 Wittenberg and Reed 1988 Cell 54: 1 061 -1072 Wittenberg et al. 1990 Cell 62: 225-237 Xie eí al. 1996 EMBO J. 1 5: 4900-4908 Xiong et al., 1992 Cell 71: 505-514 Xiong et al., 1991 Cell 65: 691 -699 LIST OF SEQUENCES (1) GENERAL INFORMATION: (i) APPLICANT: (A) DESTINY: Cambridge University Technical Services Ltd. (B) STREET: The Old Schools Trinity Lane (C) CITY: Cambridge (E) COUNTRY: United Kingdom (F) ) POSTAL CODE: CB2 1TS (G) TELEPHONE: 44-1223334755 (H) TELEFAX: 44-1223332797 (ii) TITLE OF THE INVENTION: Plants with modified growth (iii) NUMBER OF SEQUENCES: 21 (v) LEGIBLE COMPUTER FORM: (A) TYPE OF MEDIA: FLEXIBLE DISC (B) COMPUTER: IBM PC compatible (C) OPERATING SYSTEM: PC-DOS / MS-DOS (D) PACKAGING : Patent in release # 1.0, Version # 1.30 (EPO) (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO: 1: (i) CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SEQUENCE: (A) LENGTH: 1284 base pairs (B) TYPE: nucleic acid (C) FILAMENTO: double (D) TOPOLOGY: linear (ii) TYPE OF MOLECULE: cDNA to mRNA (iii) HYPOTHETICAL: NO (iv) ANTI-SENSE: NO (vi) SOURCE OF ORGANISM: (A) ORGANISM: Nicotiana tabacum (ix) CHARACTERISTICS: (A) NAME / KEY: - (B) ) LOCATION: 182..1243 (D) OTHER INFORMATION: / note = "cDNA encoding cyclin CYCD2; 1" (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO: 1: CAAATTTTTC TCCCTTCTAT AGTCTCTTTC CTGTTCTCTT AAAAATCCTT AAAAATTTAT 60 TTTTTTTTTAAC AATCT ^ TQT AAATGGGATT AAATTTTGTA AAAATATAAG ATTTTGATAA 120 AGGGGGTTTA ATTATAACAT AGTAAATTAA GATTTTTTTT TTGCTTTGCT AGTTTGCTTT 180 AATGGCAGCT GATAACATTT ATGATTTTGT AGCCTCAAAT CTTTTATGTA CAGAAACAAA 240 AAGTCTTTGT TTTGATGATG TTGATTCTTT GACTATAAGT CAACAGAACA TTGAAACTAA 300 GAGTAAAGAC TTGAGCTTTA ACAATGGTAT TAGATCAGAG CCATTGATTG ATTTGCCAAG 360 TTTAAGTGAA GAATGCTTGA GTTTTATGGT GCAAAGGGAA ATGGAGTTTT TGCCTAAAGA 420 TGATTATGTC GAGAGATTGA GAAGTGGAGA TTTGGATTTG AGTGTGAGAA AAGAGGCTCT 480 TGATTGGATT TTGAAGGCTC ATATGCACTA TGGATTTGGA GAGCTGAGTT TTTGTTTGTC 540 GATAAATTAC TTGGATCGAT TTCTATCTCT GTATGAATTG CCAAGAAGTA AAACTTGGAC 600 AGTGCAATTG TTAGCTGTGG CCTGTCTATC ACTTGCAGCC AAAATGGAAG AAATTAATGT 660 TCCTTTGACT GTTGATTTAC AGGTAGGGGA TCCCAAATTT GTATTTGAAG GCAAAACTAT 720 ACAAAGAATG GAACTTTTGG TATTAAGCAC ATTGAAGTGG AGAATGCAAG CTTATACACC 780 TTACACATTC ATAGATTATT TTATGAGAAA GATGAATGGT GATCAAATCC CATCTCGGCC 840 GTTGATTTCT GGATCAATGC AACTGATATT AAGCATAATA AGAAGTATTG ATTTCTTGGA 900 ATTCAGGTCT TCTGAAATTG CAGCATCAGT GGCAATGTCT GTTTCAGGGG AAATACAAGC 960 AAAAGACATT GATAAGGCAA TGCCTTGCTT CTTCATACAC TTAGACAAGG GTAGAGTGCA 1020 GAAGTGTGTT GAACTGATTC AAGATTTGAC AACTGCTACT ATTACTACTG CTGCTGCTGC 1080 CTCATTAGTA CCTCAAAGTC CTATTGGAGT GTTGGAAGCA GCAGCATGCT TGAGCTACAA 1140 AAGTGGTGAT GAGAGAACAG TTGGATCATG TACAACTTCT TCACATACTA AAAGGAGAAA 1200 ACTTGACACA TCATCTTTAG AGCATGGGAC TTCAGAAAAG TTGTGAATCT GAATTTTCCC 1260 TTTTTAAAAA AAAAAAAAAA AAAA 1284 (2) IN TRAINING FOR SEQ ID NO: 2: (i) CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SECU ENCIA: (A) LENGTH: 1679 base pairs (B) TI PO: nucleic acid (C) FI LAMENT: double (D) TOPOLOGY ' linear (ii) TI PO OF MOLECULE: cDNA to mRNA (iii) HI POTETH CA: NO (iv) ANTI-SENSE: NO (vi) SOURCE OF ORGANISM: (A) ORGANISM: Nicotiana tabacum (ix) CHARACTERISTIC: (A) NAME / KEY: - (B) LOCATION: 181 - .. 1299 (D) OTHER INFORMATION: / note = "cDNA coding cyclin CYCD3; 1" (xi) SECURITY DESCRITION: SEQ ID NO: 2: AAACGAGTCT CTGTGTACTC CTCCTCCTAT AGCTTTTCTC TCTTCTTCTC TTCACACCTC 60 CCACAACACA CAATCAGACA AAATAGAGAG GAAAATGAGT ATGGTGAAAA AGCTTTGTTT 120 TGTATAATGA GAAAAAGAGA TTTATATACA CTCTTCTTC TACTTCCTTC TTACTAGAAG 180 ATGGCAATAG AACACAATGA GCAACAAGAA CTATCTCAAT CTTTTCTTTT AGATGCTCTT 240 TACTGTGAAG AAGAAGAAGA AAAATGGGGA GATTTAGTAG ATGATGAGAC TATTATTACA 300 CCACTCTCTT CAGAAGTAAC AACAACAACA ACAACAACAA CAAAGCCTAA TTCTTTATTA 360 CCTTTGCTTT TGTTGGAACA AGATTTATTT TGGGAAGATG AAGAGCTTCT TTCACTTTTC 420 TCTAAAGAAA AAGAAACCCA T GTTGGTTT AACAGTTTTC AAGATGACTC TTTACTCTGT 480 TCTGCCCGTG TTGATTCTGT GGAATGGATT TTAAAAGTGA ATGGTTATTA TGGTTTCTCT 540 GCTTTGACTG CCGTTTTAGC CATAAATTAC TTTGACAGGT TTCTGACTAG TCTTCATTAT 600 CAGAAAGATA AACCTTGGAT GATTCAACTT GCTGCTGTTA CTTGTCTTTC TTTAGCTGCT 660 AAAGTTGAAG AAACTCAAGT TCCTCTTCTT TTAGATTTTC AAGTGGAGGA TGCTAAATAT 720 GTGTTTGAGG CAAAAACTAT TCAAAGAATG GAGCTTTTAG TGTTGTCTTC ACTAAAATGG 780 AGGATGAATC CAGTGACCCC ACTTTCATTT CTTGATCATA TTATAAGGAG GCTTGGGCTA 840 AGAAATAATA TTCACTGGGA ATTTCTTAGA AGÁTGTGAAA ATCTCCTCCT GCTGATTGTA GATTCGTACG TTATATGCCG TCTGTATTGG CCACTGCAAT TATGCTTCAC 960 GTTATTCATC AAGTTGAGCC TTGTAATTCT GTTGACTACC AAAATCAACT TCTTGGGGTT 1020 CTCAAAATTA ACAAGGAGAA AGTGAATAAT TGCTTTGAAC TCATATCAGA AGTGTGTTCT 1080 AAGCCCATTT CACACAAACG CAAATATGAG AATCCTAGTC ATAGCCCAAG TGGTGTAATT 1140 GATCCAATTT ACAGTTCAGA AAG TCAAAT GATTCATGGG ATTTGGAGTC AACATCTTCA 1200 TATTTTCCTG TTTTCAAGAA AAGCAGAGTA CAAGAACAGC AAATGAAATT GGCATCTTCA 1260 ATTAGCAGAG TTTTTGTGGA AGCTGTTGGT AGTCCTCATT AAAATCAATC ACCTGATTTA 1320 TCTCTTTTCT TTCTTATTAC CAACTATGGT GGTAATAATA TTTATTGATA TTCAGAAGTA 1380 TTTACCTTTA ATGTCATTTT CAAAAATTAC ATGAAAATGG AAAAAAAGAA AAGAAGAGCT 1440 TAGCTGGTGG TTGCAGTTGG CAGAGAAGAG GACTGGCTTT TTTTTGCAGG AGTGTAGTCT 1500 ACTACTACTG GAAAGCAGAG ATAGAGAGAG GAGAAAAGAC AGAAAATCTG CACTATTTGT 1560 TTTTTCTCTA TTCATATCAA TTCTCTCTTA GGTCCTTTTC ATGCATGCAT ACTTTTGATG 1620 GACATATTTT ATATATTTAC TATAATCATA AATTCTTGAA TAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAA 1679 (2) IN TRAINING FOR SEQ ID NO: 3: (i) CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SECU ENCIA: (A) LONG ITUD: 1431 base pairs (B) TI PO: nucleic acid (C) FI LAMENT: double (D) TOPOLOGY : linear (ii) TI PO OF MOLECULE: cDNA am RNA (iii) HI POTÉTICA: NO (iv) ANTI-SENTIDO: NO (vi) FU ENTE OF ORGAN ISMO: (A) ORGANISM: Nicotiana tabacum (ix) CHARACTERISTIC: (A) NAME / KEY: - (B) LOCATION: 1 98 .. 1 298 (D) ANOTHER I NFORMATION: / note = "cDNA encoding cyclin CYCD3: 2" (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO: 3 : CACCTTTACT CTCTTCTCCT TTTTGGCTCT TCCCATTCTC TCCTTCTCTT TCTTTATTTT 60 CTGTCCTGTA GAGAGAGAGA GAAAGTATAA GCAAAGCAGC AGATATGTTA CTGGGTCCAA 120 GATTGAGTTT TGGCTTACCT TGAAGATAAT GAGTAGAGCC TCCATTGTCT TCTTCCGTCA 180 AGAAGAAGAA GAAGAAGATG GTTTTCCCTT TAGATACTCA GCTCCTAAAT CCAATCTTTG 240CTGTGAGGAA GATCGATTCT TGGACGATGA TGATTTAGGA GAATGGTCTA 300 GTACTTTAGA ACAAGTAGGA AATAATGTGA AAAAGACTCT ACCTTTATTA. GAATGTGACA 360 TGTTTTGGGA AGATGACCAG CTTGTCACTC TTTTAACTAA GGAAAAAGAG TCTCATTTGG 420 GTTTTTGATTG TTTAATCTCA GATGGAGATG GGTTTTTAGT GGAGGTTAGA AAAGAGGCAT 480 TGGATTGGAT GTTGAGAGTC ATTGCTCACT ATGGTTTCAC TGCTATGACT GCTGTTTTAG_540_CTGTGAATTA TTTTGATAGG TTTGTATCTG GACTCTGCTT TCAGAAAGAT AAGCCTTGGA 600 TGAGTCAACT TGCTGCTGTG GCTTGTCTTT CTATTGCTGC TAAAGTGGAA GAGACCCAAG 660 TCCCCCTTCT CTTAGACCTC CAAGTGGCTG ATTCAAGATT TGTGTTTGAG GCAAAGACTA 720 TTCAGAGAAT GGAACTCTTG GTGCTCTCCA CTCTTAAGTG GAAAATGAAT CCAGTGACAC 780 CACTATCTTT CATTGATCAT ATCATGAGGA GATTTGGATT CATGACCAAT CTACATTTGG 840 ATTTTCTTAG GAGATGTGAA CGCCTCATTC TTGGTATTAT CACTGATTCT AGGCTCTTGC 900 ATTATCCTCC ATCTGTTATT GCAACTGCAG TAGTGTATTT CGTGATCAAT GAGATTGAGC 960 CTTGCAATGC AATGGAATAC CAGAATCAGC TCATGACTGT TCTTAAAGTC AAACAGGATA 1020 GTTTTGAAGA ATGCCATGAT CTTATTCTAG AGCTAATGGG CACTTCTGGC TACAATATCT 1080 GCCAAAGCCT CAAGCGCAAA CATCAATCTG TACCTGGCAG TCCAAGTGGA GTTATCGATG 1140 CATATTTTAG TTGCGACAGC TCTAATGATT CGTGGTCGGT AGCATCTTCA ATTTCATCGT 1200 CACCAGAACC: TCAGTATAAG 1 AGGATCAAAA CTCAGGATCA GACAATGACA CTGGCTCCAC 1260 TGAGTTCTG 'TTCTGTCGT1' GTGGGCAGTA GTCCTCGTTG ATCAGTATCT CATTCTCTAG_1320_ATTATCTAG_1_• ATTACGGCTA TGGTTACTAT ATGATCTCTC TTTTTTGGTA TGTTCTCTTA 1380 AACTGCAGT 1 GCACAATGC1 'CTGATGTTCC ATTAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAA A 1431 (2) I NFORMATION FOR S EQ ID NO: 4: (i) CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SECU ENCIA: (A) LENGTH: 1 788 base pairs (B) TI PO: nucleic acid (C) FI LAMENT: simple ( D) TOPOLOGY: linear (ii) TI PO OF MOLECULE: cDNA to mRNA (ii) HI POTÉTICA: NO (iv) ANTI-SENSE: NO (vi) SOURCE OF ORGANISM: (A) ORGANISM: Helianthus tuberosus (ix) CHARACTERISTICS : (A) NAME / KEY: - (B) LOCATION: 165..1 109 (D) OTHER INFORMATION: / note = "cDNA coding cyclin CycD 1; 1" (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO: 4: CACAACAATC ACTTCTACTC ACTATTCACT ACTTACTAAT CACTGCAACT TCTCCGGCCA 60 CTTTTCACCT CAAACCGCCG GAACTCCGCC GCTCCGGTCG ACGGTGAATC ACTGAATCTT 120 AGCAATTATG TTCACAACAG TATGAACAAT CAACACCGGT CATCATGTCA ATCTCGTGCT 180 CTGACTGCTT CTCCGACTTA CTCTGCTGCG AGGACTCCGG CATATTATCC GGCGACGACC 240 GGCCGGAGTG CTCCTATGAT TTCGAATATT CCGGCGACTT TGATGATTCG ATCGCGGAGT 300 TTATAGAACA GGAGAGAAAG TTCGTTCCAG GAATCGATTA CGTCGAGCGA TTTCAATCGC 360 AAGTTCTCGA TGCTTCTGCT AGAGAAGAAT CGGTTGCCTG GATCCTTAAG GTGCAACGGT 420 TTTACGGATT TCAGCCGTTG ACGGCGTACC TCTCCGTTAA CTATCTGGAT CGTTTCATCT 480 ATTGCCGTGG CTTCCCGGTG GCAAATGGGT GGCCCTTGCA ACTCTTATCT GTAGCATGCT 540 TGTCTTTAGC TGCTAAAATG GAGGAAACCC TTATTCCTTC TATTCTTGAT CTCCAGGTTG 600 AAGGTGCAAA ATATATTTTC GAGCCGAAAA CAATCCGAAG AATGGAGTTT CTTGTGCTTA 660 GTGTTTTGGA TTGGAGACTA AGATCCGTTA CACCGTTTAG CTTTATCGGC TTCTTTTCGC 720 ACAAAATCGA TCCATCTGGA ATGTATACGG GTTTCCTTAT CTCAAGGGCA ACACAAATTA 780 TCCTCTCAAA TATTCAAGAA GCTAGTTTAC TTGAGTATTG GCCATCATGT ATTGCTGCTG 840 CAACAATACT TTGTGCAGCA AGTGATCTTT CTAAATTCTC ACTTATCAAT GCTGATCATG 900 CTGAATCATG GTGTGATGGC CTTAGCAAAG AGAAGATCAC AAAATGTTAC AGACTTGTAC 960 AATCTCCAAA GATATTGCCG GTACATGTTC GAGTCATGAC GGCTCGAGTG AGTACTGAGT 1020 CAGGTGACTC ATCGTCGTCG TCTTCTTCGC CATCGCCTTA CAAAAAGAGG AAACTAAATA 1080 ACTACTCATG GATAGAGGAG GACAAAAGAT GAAAATAAGG AGACAAAATA AATAAATAAA 1140 TCCGGATTCC TCTCTATATT TTTTAAAGGA ATCAACAAAT ATATATAAAA AAAAAAAATG 1200 GAGTCAGGAA AAGCAACGAA AGCCGCCGGA GGAAGAAAAG GCGCCGGAGC GAGGAAGAAG 1260 TCCGTCACAA AGTCCGTCAA AGCCGGTCTC CAGTTCCCCG TCGGAAGAAT CGCTAGGTTT 1320 CTAAAAAAAG GCCGATACGC TCAACGTACC GGATCCGGAG CTCCGATCTA CCTTGCTGC7 1380 GTTCTAGAAT ACCTTGCTGC TGAGGTTTTG GAGTTGGCGG GAAATGCAGC GAGAGATAAC 1440 AAGAAGACAA GGATAAACCC TAGGCACTTG CTATTGGCTG TTAGGAACGA TGAGGAATTG 1500 GGGAAATTGC TTGCTGGTGT TACTATTGCT AGTGGAGGTG TGTTGCCCAA TATCAATCCG 1560 GTTCTTTTGC CCAAGAAGTC TTCTTCTTCT TCTGCTGCTG AGAAGACCCC CAAATCTAAA 1620 AAGTCGCCTA AAAAGGCTGC TTAGATAGAT GTTTCTGGTT ATAGTTGGTT AGATTAAGTT 1680 GAAGCAAAAC AGTCTCTTTT GTTCAATTAG TCGTCTGGCA ATGTAACTAT TTTGGTCGTC 1740 TTCAAAATGT TAATTGGATA CTATCTTCTT TAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAA 1788 (2) I N TRAINING FOR SEQ I D NO: 5: (i) CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SECU ENCIA: (A) LENGTH: 1414 base pairs (B) TYPE: nucleic acid (C) FILAMENTO: double (D) TOPOLOGY: linear (¡i) TI PO OF MOLECULE: cDNA to mRNA ( iii) HI POTÉTICA: NO (iv) ANTI-SENTIDO: NO (vi) SOURCE OF ORGAN ISMO: (A) ORGAN ISMO: Helianthus tuberosus (ix) CHARACTERISTIC: (A) NAME / KEY: - (B) LOCATION: 48 ..1 1 1 8 (D) OTHER INFORMATION: / note = "cDNA encoding CYCD3; 1" (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO: 5: TTGAACCTTC ATTTCTTTTC TTTTCTTCTT TCTAATCACC AACCCCAATG GCCATTTTAT 60 CACCATATTC ATCTTCTTTC TTAGACACAC TCTTTTGCAA TGAACAACAA GATCATGAAT 120 ATCATGAATA TGAGTATGAA GATGAATTTA CACAAACCAC CCTCACAGAT TCATCTGATC 180 TCCATCTTCC CCCCCTGGAC CAACTAGATT TGTCATGGGA ACATGAAGAG CTTGTGTCCT 240 TGTTCACAAA AGAACAAGAG CAGCAAAAAC AAACCCCTTG TACTCTCTCT TTTGGCAAAA 300 CTAGTCCCTC AGTTTTTTGCT GCTCGTAAAG AGGCTGTAGA TTGGATCCTT AAGGTCAAAA 360 GTTGTTATGG ATTCACACCT CTTACAGCCA TTTTAGCCAT CAATTATCTT GATAGGTTTC 420 TTTCTAGCCT CCATTTTCAA GAAGATAAAC CTTGGATGAT TCAACTTGTT GCTGTTAGTT 480 GTCTCTCTTT AGCTGC AAA GTTGAAGAAA CTCAAGTGCC ACTCTTACTA GATCTTCAAG 540 TAGAGGACAC TAAGTACTTG TTTGAGGCTA AAAACATACA AAAAATGGAG CTTTTGGTGA 600 TGTCAACTTT GAAATGGAGG ATGAACCCAG TGACACCAAT CTCATTTCTT GATCACATTG 660 TAAGAAGGCT TGGATTAACT GATCATGTTC ATTGGGATTT TTTCAAGAAA TGTGAAGCTA 720 TGATCCTTTG TTTAGTTTCA GATTCAAGAT TCGTGTGTTA TAAACCATCC GTGTTGGCCA 780 CAGCTACAAT GCTTCACGTT GTAGATGAAA TTGATCCTCC CAATTGTATT GACTACAAAA 840 GTCAACTTCT GGATCTTCTC AAAACCACTA AGGACGACAT AAACGAGTGT TACGAGCTCA 900 TTGTCGAGCT AGCTTACGAT CATCACAACA AACGAAAACA TGATGCAAAC GAGACAACAA 960 CCAATCCGGT TAGTCCAGCT GGCGTGATCG ATTTCACTTG TGATGAAAGT TCAAATGAGT 1020 CATGGGAACT TAATGCTCAT CATTTCCGCG AGCCTTCATT CAAGAAAACA AGAATGGATT 1080 CAACAATTCG GGTTCGGGTT TGGTTCACTT ATAAGCTTTA ATCGAGGGTA GTTGTAAACA 1140 TGTAATCCGC ATGCACGCTA TTAATCCTAC GGTCCACTAC TACATATAAT CGGCCTATAA 1200 AATTATAGGT TAAGATGACC AGTCGTAGGC GTCGAGATGT CCTTATGGTT GGTCAATTTC 1260 TCTATGGTTT TAGGTCGTTT TTAATGTGAG ATAAATTAAA TTCGGTATGT TAAGTCTTTA 1320 TCAAGCAATG GACGTTATAT TTATTGTTTG ATATTGAGAA TTAAATTCCA TGGGAAAAAA 1380 AAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAA AAAA 1414 (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO: 6: (i) CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SEQUENCE: (A) LENGTH: 100 base pairs (B) TYPE: nucleic acid (C) FILAMENTO: double (D) TOPOLOGY: linear (i) ) TYPE OF MOLECULE: other nucleic acid (A) DESCRIPTION: / desc = "PBSV5 T-DNA DNA sequence" (iii) HYPOTHETICAL: NO (iv) ANTI-SENSE: NO (ix) CHARACTERISTIC: (A) NAME / KEY: - (B) LOCATION: 1.25 (D) OTHER INFORMATION: / mark = RB / note: "right edge sequence of PGSV5 T-DNA" (ix) CHARACTERISTICS: (A) NAME / KEY: - (B) LOCATION: 26..75 (D) OTHER INFORMATION Mark: MCS / note = "Multiple cloning site" (ix) FEATURE: (A) NAME / KEY: - (B) LOCATION: 76..100 (D) OTHER INFORMATION: / mark = LB / note = "left edge sequence of the T-DNA of pGSV5" (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO: 6: AATTACAACG GTATATATCC TGCCAGTACT CGGCCGTCGA CCGCGGTACC CGGGGAAGCT 60 TAGATCCATG GAGCCATTTA CAATTGAATA TATCCTGCCG 100 (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO: 7: (i) CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SEQUENCE: (A) LENGTH: 17 base pairs (B) TYPE: nucleic acid (C) FILAMENTO: SIMPLE (D) TOPOLOGY: linear (ii) TYPE OF MOLECULE: other nucleic acid (A) DESCRIPTION: / desc = "oligonucleotide primer 1 for PCR" (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO: 7: GCMTGGATYC TYAAGGT 17 (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO: 8: (i) CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SEQUENCE: (A) LENGTH: 17 base pairs (B) TYPE: nucleic acid (C) FILAMENTO: simple (D) TOPOLOGY: linear (ii) TYPE OF MOLECULE: other nucleic acid (A) DESCRIPTION: / desc = "oligonucleotide 2 primer for PCR" (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO: 8: TGCTTGTCWT TAGCTGC 17 (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO: 9: (i) CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SEQUENCE: (A) LENGTH: 18 base pairs (B) TYPE: nucleic acid (C) FILAMENTO: simple (D) TOPOLOGY: linear (ii) TYPE OF MOLECULE: other nucleic acid (A) DESCRIPTION: / desc = "oligonucleotide 3 primer for PCR" (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO: 9: AAGAATGGAR YTTCTTGT 18 (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO: 10: (i) CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SEQUENCE: (A) LENGTH: 19 base pairs (B) TYPE: nucleic acid (C) FILAMENTO: simple (D) TOPOLOGY: linear (ii) TYPE OF MOLECULE: other nucleic acid (A) DESCRIPTION: / desc = "oligonucleotide 4 primer for PCR" (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO: 10: ARAGNATYCY KGCWGCAGC 19 (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO: 11: (i) CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SEQUENCE: (A) LENGTH: 19 base pairs (B) TYPE: nucleic acid (C) FILAMENTO: simple (D) TOPOLOGY: linear (ii) TYPE OF MOLECULE: other nucleic acid (A) DESCRIPTION: / desc = "oligonucleotide primer 5 for PCR" (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO: 11: CCRTCACACC AWGNYTCAG 19 (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO: 12: (i) CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SEQUENCE: (A) LENGTH: 16 base pairs (B) TYPE: nucleic acid (C) FILAMENTO: simple (D) TOPOLOGY: linear (i) ) TYPE OF MOLECULE: other nucleic acid (A) DESCRIPTION: / desc = "oligonucleotide 6 primer for PCR" (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO: 12: TGGWGATTTG GATTTG 16 (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO: 13: (i) CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SEQUENCE: (A) LENGTH: 17 base pairs (B) TYPE: nucleic acid (C) FILAMENTO: simple (D) TOPOLOGY: linear (ii) TYPE OF MOLECULE: other nucleic acid (A) DESCRIPTION: / desc = "oligonucleotide primer 7 for PCR" (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO: 13: ATNAANTACT TGGATCG 17 (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO: 14: (i) CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SEQUENCE: (A) LENGTH: 19 base pairs (B) TYPE: nucleic acid (C) FILAMENTO: simple (D) TOPOLOGY: linear (i) ) TYPE OF MOLECULE: other nucleic acid (A) DESCRIPTION: / desc = "oligonucleotide primer 8 for PCR" (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO: 14: AGCTTGCANT CTCCANTTC 19 (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO: 15 : (i) CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SEQUENCE: (A) LENGTH: 17 base pairs (B) TYPE: nucleic acid (C) FILAMENTO: simple (D) TOPOLOGY: linear (ii) TYPE OF MOLECULE: other nucleic acid (A) DESCRIPTION: / desc = "oligonucleotide primer 9 for PCR" (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO: 15: TCAGAAGNCC TGAANTC 17 (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO: 16: (i) CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SEQUENCE: (A) LENGTH: 17 base pairs (B) TYPE: nucleic acid (C) FILAMENTO: simple (D) TOPOLOGY: linear (ii) TYPE OF MOLECULE: other nucleic acid (A) DESCRIPTION: / desc = "oligonucleotide primer 10 for PCR" (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO: 16: GANTGGATNY TNAARGT 17 (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO: 17: (i) CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SEQUENCE: (A) LENGTH: 17 base pairs (B) TYPE: nucleic acid "(C) FILAMENTO: simple (D) TOPOLOGY: linear (ii) ) TYPE OF MOLECULE: other nucleic acid (A) DESCRIPTION: / desc = "oligonucleotide primer 11 for PCR" (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO: 17: AAGABAARCC WTGGATG 17 (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO: 18: (i) CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SEQUENCE: (A) LENGTH: 20 base pairs (B) TYPE: nucleic acid (C) FILAMENTO: simple (D) TOPOLOGY: linear (ii) TYPE OF MOLECULE: other nucleic acid (A) DESCRIPTION: / desc = "oligonucleotide primer 12 for PCR" (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO: 18: GTKGAAGARA CTCAAGTBCC 20 (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO: 19: (i) CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SEQUENCE: (A) LENGTH: 24 base pairs (B) TYPE: nucleic acid (C) FILAMENTO: simple (D) TOPOLOGY: linear (ii) TYPE OF MOLECULE: other nucleic acid (A) DESCRIPTION: / desc = "oligonucleotide primer 13 for PCR" (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO: 19: TGGNGTNACW GGNTKCATYY TCCA 24 (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO: 20: (i) CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SEQUENCE: (A) LENGTH: 20 base pairs (B) TYPE: nucleic acid (C) FILAMENTO: simple (D) TOPOLOGY: linear (ii) TYPE OF MOLECULE: other nucleic acid (A) DESCRIPTION: / desc = "PR14 oligonucleotide primer for PCR" (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO: 20: GCWGNNGCNA NNNCAGANGG 20 (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO: 21: (i) CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SEQUENCE: (A) LENGTH: 1846 base pairs (B) TYPE: nucleic acid (C) FILAMENTO: double (D) TOPOLOGY: linear (ii) TYPE OF MOLECULE: cDNA to mRNA (iii) HYPOTHETICAL: NO (iv) ANTI-SENSE: NO (vi) ORIGINAL SOURCE: (A) ORGANISM: Zea mays (ix) CHARACTERISTICS: (A) NAME / KEY: - (B) LOCATION: 316..1389 (D) OTHER INFORMATION: / note = "cDNA encoding cyclin CYCD2" (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO: 21: CTGCAGTGGC CTAGCCGGCG TCGTCCTCCC CCTCTCHCGC TCCTCTGTCC TCCCCTCTCC 60 ACTTGAGAAG AACACAATTA GGAAAAAAAG GCAAAAAACA TTTACCTTTT TTCTATCTGT 120 ATATTATCTG AATAAATCAA GAGGAGGAAG AGGGGAGGGA GCGAGGGAGG GGGAGGAGTA 180 GCAAATCCAG ACTCCATAGC AACCAGCTCG CGAGAAGGGG AAAAGGGGGA GGAAGAGCTT 240 CGCTTSTGTA TTGATTGCTC GCTGCTCCAG TCCCTGCATT CGTGCCGTTT TTGGCAAGTA 300 GGTGGCGTGG CAAGCATGGT GCCGGGCTAT GACTGCGCCG CCTCCGTGCT GCTGTGCGCG 360 GAGGACAACG CTGCTATTCT CGGCCTGGAC GACGATGGGG AGGAGTCCTC CTGGGCGGCC 420 GCCGCTACGC CGCCACGTGA CACCGTCGCC GCCGCCGCCG CCACCGGGGT CGCCGTCGAT 480 GGGATTTTGA CGGAGTTCCC CTTGCTCTCG GATGACTGCG TTGCGACGCT CGTGGAGAAG 540 GAGGTGGAGC ACATGCCCGC GGAGGGGTAC CTCCAGAAGC TGCAGCGACG GCATGGGGAC 600 CTGGATTTGG CCGCCGTCAG GAAGGACGCC ATCGATTGGA TTTGGAAGGT CATTGAGCAT 660 TACAATTTCG CACCGTTGAC TGCCGTTTTG TCTGTGAACT ACCTCGATAG ATTCCTCTCC 720 ACGTATGAGT TCCCTGAAGG CAGAGCTTGG ATGACTCAGC TCTTGGCAGT GGCTTGCTTG 780 TCTTTGGCTT CGAAAATCGA AGAGACTTTT GTGCCACTCC CCTTGGATTT GCAGGTAGCG 840 GAGGCAAAGT TTGTTTTTGA GGGAAGGACC ATAAAAAGGA TGGAGCTTCT GGTGCTAAGC 900 ACCTTAAAGT GGAGGATGCA TGCTGTTACT GCTTGCTCAT TTGTTGAATA CTTTCTTCAT 960 AAATTGAGTG ATCATGGTGC ACCCTCCTTG CTTGCACGCT CTCGCTCTTC GGACCTTGTC 1020 TTGAGCACCG CTAAAGGTGC TGAATTCGTG GTATTCAGAC CCTCCGAGAT TGCTGCCAGT 1080 GTTGCACTTG CTGCTATCGG CGAATGCAGG AGTTCTGTAA TTGAGAGAGC TGCTAGTAGC 1140 TGCAAATATT TGGACAAGGA GAGGGTTTTA AGATGCCATG AAATGATTCA AGAGAAGATT 1200 ACTGCGGGAA GCATTGTCCT AAAGTCTGCT GGATCATCAA TCTCCTCTGT GCCACAAAGC 1260 CCAATAGGTG TCCTGGACGC TGCAGCCTGT CTGAGTCAAC AAAGCGATGA CGCTACTGTC 1320 GGGTCTCCTG CAGTATGTTA CCATAGTTCT TCCACAAGCA AGAGGAGAAG GATCACTAGA 1380 CGTCTACTCT AATTGTGGTA CGCTTCAGGT GTGCTCCTCA CCGCTCTAGG AGTTTTTGAT 1440 TGGTTCAAAC ATCTTAAATT TAGTTTGGCC GCTGGAGGAT TATGGTTTAG TCAAGTAGTT 1500 GCTGAATGGA CAACAAAACA CGCACACTAC TTGGTCCATA AAGACAAGAA AATAACTGGC 1560 AGCGTCCCGC GAGCCAGCGC TGCAATCCAG TTCATGCAAG ACCCTAGAGT CCAGGGGGGG 1620 TGCTGGTGTA GGTAGAGAGG GAACAAGGCA TTCACATACG CCGTAGAGAT GAGAGAGCCT 1680 CTCGTATGTT TTGTACTTTT GCTCCTTCAG TTTGCAATGA ACTATATAAA CAAGGATTGC 1740 CTTGGGGCAG TGAACATTTG TCGGATGAAA AGAATCAAAA AGGATGGGGG TCGGCAGAGG 1800 AATAGAACAA TTTGATATAT TTCCATAAAC TAAAAAAAAA AA? AAA 1846

Claims (42)

1. Claims 1. A process for obtaining a plant with altered growth characteristics and altered architecture, said process comprising the step of altering the level or functional level of a cellular division controlling protein within cells of a plant, wherein said cellular division controlling protein is able to bind or phosphorylate a protein similar to Rb.
2. 2. The process of claim 1, wherein said cell division controlling protein comprises a protein-binding motif similar to Rb in the N-terminal part of the protein.
3. 3. The process of claim 2, wherein said protein binding motif similar to Rb is LxCxE.
4. 4. The process of re-dividing 3, wherein said cell-dividing-controlling protein is a type D cyclin. The process of any of claims 1 to 4, wherein said level or functional level of said dividing-controlling protein. The cell is altered by expressing in said cells of said plant, a chimeric gene comprising the following operably linked DNA fragments: a) an expressible promoter region in plant b) a region of transcribed DNA encoding an RNA or a protein, which when expressed, either increases or decreases said level or functional level of said cell division controlling protein; and optionally c) a 3 'end formation and functional polyadenylation signal in plant cells. The process of claim 5, wherein said region of transcribed DNA encodes an antisense RNA, a ribozyme or a sense RNA strand, which when expressed, reduces, inhibits or prevents the expression of said cellular division controlling protein. . The process of claim 6, wherein said region of transcribed DNA encodes an antisense RNA, which when expressed, reduces, inhibits or prevents the expression of an endogenous type D cyclin. 8. The process of claim 5, wherein said transcribed DNA region encodes a cell division controlling protein capable of binding or phosphorylating a Rb-like protein. The process of claim 5, wherein said region of transcribed DNA encodes a cell division controlling protein comprising a protein binding motif similar to Rb. 10. The process of claim 9, wherein said binding motif is LxCxE. eleven . The process of claim 5, wherein said DNA region encodes a type D cyclin. The process of claim 1, wherein said type D cyclin is a type D cyclin of plants. The process of claim 12, wherein said cyclin D type is selected from Arabidopsis thaliana CYCD 1, Arabidopsis thalina CYCD2, Arabisopsis thaliana CYC D3, Nicotiana tabacum CYCD3; 1, Nicotiana tabacum CYCD2; 1, Nicotiana tabacum CYCD3; 2, Helianthus tuberosus CYCD 1; 1 Zea mays CYCD2 and Helianthus tuberosus CYCD3. The process of claim 1, wherein said region of transcribed DNA comprises a nucleotide sequence selected from the nucleotide sequence of EMBL Accession No. X83369 from nucleotide position 1 04 to nucleotide position 1 108, the EMBL accession nucleotide sequence No. X83370 from nucleotide position 1 95 to nucleotide position 1 346, the nucleotide sequence of EMBL Accession No. X83371 from nucleotide position 266 to nucleotide position 1 396, the sequence of nucleotide SEQ ID No. 1 from nucleotide position 182 to nucleotide position 1243, the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID No. 2 from nucleotide position 1 81 to nucleotide position 1299, the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID No. 3 from the position of nucleotide 198 to the position of nucleotide 1 298, the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID No. 4 from the position of nucleotides 165 to the position of nucleotides 1 1 09, the secu nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID No. 5 from nucleotide position 48 to nucleotide position 1 1 18 or the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID No. 21 from nucleotide position 31 6 to nucleotide position 1 389. 1 5. The process of claim 5, wherein said region of transcribed DNA encodes a protein or peptide, which when expressed increases said functional level of said cell division controlling protein. 16. The process of claim 1, wherein said transcribed DNA region encodes a protein or peptide selected from: a mutant D-type cyclin, a part of a D-type cyclin, a D-type cyclin which has a the cyclin box, a cyclin type D2, which has a substitution of amino acid 1 85 or amino acid 1 55, a cyclin type D2, which has a mutation E 1 85A or K1 55A, a cyclin type D, where the PEST sequences are removed, a type D cyclin, where the lxCxE ligation motif has been changed or deleted, or a type D cyclin, where the residue C of the LxCxE ligation motif has been deleted. The process of any of claims 5 to 16, wherein said promoter region expressible in plant is a CaMV35S promoter region. 18. The process of claim 6 or claim 7, wherein said altered growth characteristic comprises a reduced growth rate. The process of any of claims 8 to 17, wherein said altered growth characteristic comprises an increased growth rate. The process of any of claims 8 to 17, wherein said altered growth characteristic comprises a more rapid germination. twenty-one . The process of any of claims 8 to 17, wherein said altered growth characteristic comprises a reduction in the time required to flower. The process of any of claims 8 to 17, wherein said altered architecture comprises an increased number of flowers per plant, or an increased number of seeds per plant, or an increased number of fruits per plant. 23. A chimeric gene as described in any of claims 5 to 17. 24. A plant cell, comprising the chimeric genes of claim 23. 25. A plant, consisting essentially of the plant cells of claim 24. 26. The plant of claim 25, which is a plant that grows in a greenhouse. 27. The plant of claim 23, said plant is selected from pine, poplar, Eucalyptus tree, alfalfa, legumes, grasses, corn, rapeseed, flaxseed, wheat, a brassica vegetable, tomato, lettuce, rice, barley, potato , tobacco, beet, sunflower, carnation, chrysanthemum, rose or tulip. 28. A seed of the plant of any of claims 25 to 27, said seed comprising the chimeric genes of claim 23. 29. An isolated DNA fragment comprising the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID No. 1 of the nucleotide in the position 1 82 to the nucleotide at position 1 243. 30. An isolated DNA fragment comprising the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID No. 2 of the nucleotide at position 1 82 to the nucleotide at position 1 243. 31 An isolated DNA fragment comprising the sequence of SEQ ID No. 2 of the nucleotide at position 181 to the nucleotide at position 1299. 32. An isolated DNA fragment comprising the sequence of SEQ ID No. 3 of the nucleotide at position 1 98 to the nucleotide in the position 1 298. 33. An isolated DNA fragment comprising the sequence of SEQ ID No. 4 of the nucleotide at position 1 65 to the nucleotide at position 1 109. 34. An isolated DNA fragment comprising the sequence of SEQ ID No. 5 from the nucleotide at position 48 to the nucleotide at position 1 1 1 8. 35. An isolated DNA fragment comprising the sequence of SEQ ID No. 21 of the nucleotide at position 316 to the nucleotide at position 1389. 36. The use of claim 35, wherein said cell division controlling protein comprises a LxCxE ligation motif in the N-terminal part of the protein. 37. The use of claim 36, wherein said cell division controlling protein is a type D cyclin. 38. The use of claim 37, wherein said cell division controlling protein is a type D cyclin selected from Arabidopsis thaliana CYCD. 1, Arabidopsis thalina CYCD2, Arabisopsis thaliana CYCD3, Nicotiana tabacum CYCD3; 1, Nicotiana tabacum CYCD2; 1, Nicotiana tabacum CYCD3; 2, Helianthus tuberosus CYCD 1; 1 Zea mays CYCD2 and Helianthus tuberosus CYCD3. 39. The use of any of claims 34 to 37, wherein said cell division controlling protein is encoded by a chimeric gene, integrated into the genome of the cells of a plant. 40. The use of a DNA encoding a cell division controlling protein capable of binding or phosphorylating a Rb-like protein to alter the growth characteristics or architecture of a plant. 41 The use of claim 40, wherein said cell division controlling protein is a type D cyclin. 42. The use of claim 41, wherein said DNA comprises a nucleotide sequence selected from the nucleotide sequence of EMBL Access No. X83369 from nucleotide position 1 04 to nucleotide position 1 108, the nucleotide sequence of EMBL Accession No. X83370 from nucleotide position 1 95 to nucleotide position 1 346, the nucleotide sequence of EMBL Accession No. X83371 from the position of nucleotide 266 to the position of nucleotide 1 396, the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID No. 1 from the position of nucleotide 1 82 to the position of nucleotide 1243, the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID No. 2 from the position of nucleotide 1 81 to the position of nucleotide 1299, the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID No. 3 from the position of nucleotide 198 to the position of nucleotide 1298, the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID No. 4 from the position of nucleotides 1 to the position of nucleotides 1 109, the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID No. 5 from the position of nucleotide 48 to the position of nucleotide 1 1 to 8 or the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID No. 21 of the posi nucleotide 316 to the position of nucleotide 1 389.