Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Election/Restrictions
1. Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I (claims 1, 9, 11-16), and SEQ ID NO: 20 (polypeptide, erroneously stated as nucleotide sequence) and SEQ ID NO: 35 (promoter) in the reply filed on May 06, 20246 is acknowledged.
Accordingly claims 1, 9 and 11-16 in conjunction with SEQ ID NO: 20 and SEQ ID NO: 35 are examined on merits in the present Office action. This restriction is made Final.
Applicant is reminded that upon the cancellation of claims to a non-elected invention, the inventorship must be corrected in compliance with 37 CFR 1.48(a) if one or more of the currently named inventors is no longer an inventor of at least one claim remaining in the application. A request to correct inventorship under 37 CFR 1.48(a) must be accompanied by an application data sheet in accordance with 37 CFR 1.76 that identifies each inventor by his or her legal name and by the processing fee required under 37 CFR 1.17(i).
Information Disclosure Statement
2. Initialed and dated copies of Applicant’s IDS form 1449 filed in the papers of 04/09/2016 and 04/16/2025 are attached to the instant Office action. The submissions are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
3. Claim 1 is objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 1 is objected for erroneously reciting “a polynucleotide as set forth in SEQ ID NO: 20 encoding a polypeptide of subgroup 4 R2R3-MYB transcription factor”. It may be noted that SEQ ID NO: 20 is a polypeptide sequence NOT a polynucleotide sequence. In light of this, it is suggested to change the phrase “a polynucleotide as set forth in SEQ ID NO: 20 encoding a polypeptide of subgroup 4 R2R3-MYB transcription factor” to --- a polynucleotide encoding a R2R3-MYB subfamily 4 transcription factor polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO: 20---
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
4. Claim(s) 1, 9 and 11-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shen et al. (US Patent No. 8,901,371 B2, Published December 2, 2014), and further in view of in view of Wu et al. (US Patent Publication NO. 2007130645 A1, Published June 7, 2007).
Shen et al. teach a polynucleotide sequence encoding a transcription factor of SEQ ID NO: 12 (R2R3-MYB subfamily 4), wherein the transcription factor disclosed in the reference has an amino acid sequence which is 100% identical to instant SEQ ID NO: 20. The reference further teaches that the polynucleotide sequence encoding SEQ ID NO: 12 is involved in regulating gene expression in a plant. The reference further teaches a method of making a transgenic plant with improved traits, such as yield, biomass etc., comprising expression of said polynucleotide sequence encoding the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 12 in said plant, wherein said polynucleotide is operably linked with a vascular (xylem cells and tissue) tissue specific promoter. The reference further teaches obtaining transgenic seeds expressing the polypeptide disclosed in the reference, and wherein said transgenic plant is sorghum (monocot) or alfalfa (dicot) etc. The reference further discloses that said transgenic plant is transformed with a recombinant DNA construct comprising said vascular (xylem cells and tissue) tissue specific promoter operably linked to a polynucleotide sequence (SEQ ID NO: 11) encoding SEQ ID NO: 12, and wherein the polynucleotide sequence is further operably linked to a 3’ end terminator for transcription termination. The reference further discloses that said recombinant DNA construct is stably integrated into the genome of the transformed plant using Agrobacterium based method. The reference also teaches using other methods of plant transformation, such as direct DNA uptake, electroporation, direct uptake, transfection etc. The reference further discloses that said recombinant DNA construct is present on a plasmid for transformation. The transgene recited in the claims is same as the recombinant DNA construct. See in particular, abstract; claims 1-20; Figs. 1-15; examples 1-6; columns 3-34.
Shen et al. do not teach instant promoter of SEQ ID NO: 35.
Wu et al. teach a promoter of SEQ ID NO; 10563 having 99.2% similarity to instant SEQ ID NO: 35. See nucleotide positions 559 to nucleotide position 1500 of Wu et al. See the entire document.
It would have been obvious and within the scope of an ordinary skill in the art to have used any promoter that were known in the state of the prior art, including Wu et al. promoter as a matter of design choice in modifying Shen et al. recombinant DNA construct to arrive at the inventor's invention with a reasonable expectation of success and without any surprising results.
It may be noted that the properties of improving a plant growth traits such as increased plant height, increased number of tillers/branches, increased biomass yield, increased seed production, enhanced germination and seedling development, increased biomass and yield, lower insoluble lignin content, or increased ratio of syringyl to guaiacyl monomeric units in lignin would also naturally flow due to expression of SEQ ID NO: 12 under xylem-specific promoter as discussed above.
Thus, while one of ordinary skill in the art would have expressed Shen et al. SEQ ID NO: 12 (R2R3-MYB subfamily 4) protein of SEQ ID NO: 12 in a plant using any method of plant transformation including the one taught by Shen et al., for the purpose of obtaining a transgenic plant with improved traits (e.g., yield) as discussed above, it would have been obvious that said transgenic plants of Shen et al., would have also exhibited any other trait characteristics (e.g., increased plant height, increased number of tillers/branches, increased biomass yield, increased seed production, increased root development, lower insoluble lignin content, or increased ratio of syringyl to guaiacyl monomeric units in lignin) with a reasonable expectation of success because such traits are due to the expression of SEQ ID NO: 12 having 100% identity to instant SEQ ID NO: 20.
Given Wu et al. promotor sequence is highly homologous (93% identity and 99.2% similarity) to instant SEQ ID NO: 35, and which exhibits promoter activity in transgenic plant cell or plant, it would have been obvious and within the scope of an ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to isolate and identify claimed nucleotide sequences that fall within the breadth of more than 99.2% (including 100%) identity to SEQ ID NO: 35 based on the promoter polynucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO: 10563 by applying conventional methodologies of variant DNA isolation which had a reasonable expectation of success.
US-13-462-583-12
(NOTE: this sequence has 2 duplicates in the database searched.
See complete list at the end of this report)
Sequence 12, US/13462583
Patent No. 8901371
GENERAL INFORMATION
APPLICANT: Shen, Hui
APPLICANT: Chen, Fang
APPLICANT: Dixon, Richard A.
TITLE OF INVENTION: COMPOSITIONS AND METHODS FOR IMPROVED PLANT FEEDSTOCK
FILE REFERENCE: NBLE:079USP1
CURRENT APPLICATION NUMBER: US/13/462,583
CURRENT FILING DATE: 2012-05-02
NUMBER OF SEQ ID NOS: 192
SEQ ID NO 12
LENGTH: 256
TYPE: PRT
ORGANISM: Panicum virgatum
Query Match 100.0%; Score 1399; Length 256;
Best Local Similarity 100.0%;
Matches 256; Conservative 0; Mismatches 0; Indels 0; Gaps 0;
Qy 1 MGRSPCCEKAHTNKGAWTKEEDDRLVAYIRAHGEGCWRSLPKAAGLLRCGKSCRLRWINY 60
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Db 1 MGRSPCCEKAHTNKGAWTKEEDDRLVAYIRAHGEGCWRSLPKAAGLLRCGKSCRLRWINY 60
Qy 61 LRPDLKRGNFTADEDDLIVKLHSLLGNKWSLIAARLPGRTDNEIKNYWNTHIKRKLLSRG 120
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Db 61 LRPDLKRGNFTADEDDLIVKLHSLLGNKWSLIAARLPGRTDNEIKNYWNTHIKRKLLSRG 120
Qy 121 IDPVTHRPIADAARNVTISFQPDAPSQQQLSDDAEAPPPPPPQQQQQLKPPPRCPDLNLD 180
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Db 121 IDPVTHRPIADAARNVTISFQPDAPSQQQLSDDAEAPPPPPPQQQQQLKPPPRCPDLNLD 180
Qy 181 LCISPPCHKEEEDQELVKPAAVKREMLQAGHGTLGLCFGCSLGLQKGAAGCTCSSNSHFL 240
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Db 181 LCISPPCHKEEEDQELVKPAAVKREMLQAGHGTLGLCFGCSLGLQKGAAGCTCSSNSHFL 240
Qy 241 GLRVGMLLDFRGLEMK 256
||||||||||||||||
Db 241 GLRVGMLLDFRGLEMK 256
RESULT 6
US-11-635-706-10563
(NOTE: this sequence has 3 duplicates in the database searched.
See complete list at the end of this report)
Sequence 10563, US/11635706
Publication No. US20070130645A1
GENERAL INFORMATION
APPLICANT: Wu, Wei
APPLICANT: Wang, Qi
APPLICANT: Morrell, James
APPLICANT: Lutfiyya, Linda L.
APPLICANT: Lu, Maolong
APPLICANT: Li, Zhaolong
APPLICANT: Li, Ping
APPLICANT: Lacy, Michelle
APPLICANT: Kovalic, David K.
APPLICANT: Cao, Yongwei
APPLICANT: Boukharov, Andrey A.
TITLE OF INVENTION: Genome-Wide Identification aned Characterization of Gene
TITLE OF INVENTION: Expression Regulatory Elements of Maize
FILE REFERENCE: 54047-B
CURRENT APPLICATION NUMBER: US/11/635,706
CURRENT FILING DATE: 2006-12-07
PRIOR APPLICATION NUMBER: 60/748114
PRIOR FILING DATE: 2005-12-07
NUMBER OF SEQ ID NOS: 14151
SEQ ID NO 10563
LENGTH: 1500
TYPE: DNA
ORGANISM: Zea mays
Query Match 93.0%; Score 930.4; Length 1500;
Best Local Similarity 99.2%;
Matches 934; Conservative 1; Mismatches 7; Indels 0; Gaps 0;
Qy 59 TGTGGTATAGAGTAAACATGAGTGCGGATGATTGTGGTATAGAGTAAAGAATTTTGCTGA 118
|| | |||| ||||||||||||||||||||||| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Db 559 TGGGATATAAAGTAAACATGAGTGCGGATGATTCTGGTATAGAGTAAAGAATTTTGCTGA 618
Qy 119 CTAGGACAGAATATTCTTTTTAGGGTAGAAATTTAGAGTACTATGAGTGCGGATAGCCTA 178
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||| |||||||:||
Db 619 CCAGGACAGAATATTCTTTTTAGGGTAGAAATTTAGAGTAGTATGAGTGTGGATAGCYTA 678
Qy 179 AGGACCACTTTAAATTTGACACAATATTGAAATTTGAATGGTTTTAACATTTGAAGGCTG 238
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Db 679 AGGACCACTTTAAATTTGACACAATATTGAAATTTGAATGGTTTTAACATTTGAAGGCTG 738
Qy 239 AAAACCAAAATACTTTGTAGCTAAGTGTTGGAAACCCGACTCGGCCAATAAGTCGACAGA 298
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Db 739 AAAACCAAAATACTTTGTAGCTAAGTGTTGGAAACCCGACTCGGCCAATAAGTCGACAGA 798
Qy 299 CCGTAAAATAAGGTCAATCTAAACTTTATGATAAATATTCTTGTTTGATAGCAATAGCAT 358
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Db 799 CCGTAAAATAAGGTCAATCTAAACTTTATGATAAATATTCTTGTTTGATAGCAATAGCAT 858
Qy 359 TGCAGGACCAGGACCCAAGGGAAGAGAAGATGCCAAATCCCATCGAGGCTAAAGCAAAAA 418
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Db 859 TGCAGGACCAGGACCCAAGGGAAGAGAAGATGCCAAATCCCATCGAGGCTAAAGCAAAAA 918
Qy 419 CGATCCAATTTATGAGCAAACCCACACTGAAGTTTCAAAATTGTTTTCTGAAAAAAAAGT 478
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Db 919 CGATCCAATTTATGAGCAAACCCACACTGAAGTTTCAAAATTGTTTTCTGAAAAAAAAGT 978
Qy 479 AACCAGCAAGTTAAAAAATGAGATGGCGGGAAAGCCAAGTCTCGGTTGGTCGAGGGGTTG 538
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Db 979 AACCAGCAAGTTAAAAAATGAGATGGCGGGAAAGCCAAGTCTCGGTTGGTCGAGGGGTTG 1038
Qy 539 GTTGGGGCGCAGCCTGACAAGTGACAACGGCAGCAGGATAGTAGCATCAGGCGCAAGCCA 598
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Db 1039 GTTGGGGCGCAGCCTGACAAGTGACAACGGCAGCAGGATAGTAGCATCAGGCGCAAGCCA 1098
Qy 599 GCGCAGGCGGCAGCGCGAGGATTTCGCTTCACTTAGCGGCAACGGAGACGCTGCACCCAA 658
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Db 1099 GCGCAGGCGGCAGCGCGAGGATTTCGCTTCACTTAGCGGCAACGGAGACGCTGCACCCAA 1158
Qy 659 CCAACACGAGCTCCCCCTCACCCGCTGCGACGCGCGCGTCCCACGAGCGGAAGCCCCCCG 718
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Db 1159 CCAACACGAGCTCCCCCTCACCCGCTGCGACGCGCGCGTCCCACGAGCGGAAGCCCCCCG 1218
Qy 719 CGCCGACGCGAGCGCGGGGGCTCGACCGACCGACCCAACGCCTCCATCTCCACCGCGCGC 778
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Db 1219 CGCCGACGCGAGCGCGGGGGCTCGACCGACCGACCCAACGCCTCCATCTCCACCGCGCGC 1278
Qy 779 ACCAAATCGCACTCCCGTCCGCCCCGCCGATCGAACAGCCACCGCTCACCTCTCCCACCC 838
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Db 1279 ACCAAATCGCACTCCCGTCCGCCCCGCCGATCGAACAGCCACCGCTCACCTCTCCCACCC 1338
Qy 839 GCCAAAAACCTCCGGCCTCCTCTCATATTCATATAGCTAGCCCCTGCCACAAGGTAGAGC 898
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Db 1339 GCCAAAAACCTCCGGCCTCCTCTCATATTCATATAGCTAGCCCCTGCCACAAGGTAGAGC 1398
Qy 899 GTCGCTCACACCTGCGTCGCCCTGCCTCGCAATCGCGAATCTGTCGAGCACCTGAGGGGT 958
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Db 1399 GTCGCTCACACCTGCGTCGCCCTGCCTCGCAATCGCGAATCTGTCGAGCACCTGAGGGGT 1458
Qy 959 CGGAGGCCGAGAGCTAGCCTAGCACGCCGGCCTCCGCGCGCG 1000
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Db 1459 CGGAGGCCGAGAGCTAGCCTAGCACGCCGGCCTCCGCGCGCG 1500
Thus, the claimed invention as a whole is prima facie obvious over the combined teachings of the prior art.
Conclusions
5. Claims 1, 9 and 11-16 are rejected.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to VINOD KUMAR whose telephone number is (571)272-4445. The examiner can normally be reached on 8:30 am - 5.00 pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Amjad Abraham can be reached on 571-270-7058. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/VINOD KUMAR/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1663
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