The invention refers to a method for obtaining plants by genetic
engineering techniques, with improved capacity to synthesize, to
accumulate and to exude organic acids. More specifically it refers to the
production of transgenic plants having an improved capacity to take up
and excrete organic acids, providing them with a better uptake capacity
of nutrients naturally present in the soil or added as fertilizers to the
soil. These plants also have an increased capacity to tolerate the
presence i the soil of certain toxic compounds such as aluminum. The
transformation method implies the introduction of genes that increase the
capacity of the plant to produce organic acids and involves the following
steps: a) preparation of a recombinant molecule comprising the coding
sequence for an enzyme that produces organic acids, functionally bound to
a promoter sequence active in plant cells and a transcription terminator
functional in plant cells, b) transformation of plant cells with said
recombinant molecule, c) the regeneration of transgenic plants from the
transformed cells.
