METHOD OF CREATING PLANTS WITH REDUCED LEVEL OF SATURATED FATTY ACID IN SEED OIL

摘要

The present invention provides transgenic plants with reduced level of saturated fatty acid in the seed oil and methods of making these plants. The transgenic plants developed through this method contain reduced level of saturated fatty acid in seed oil due to expression of a gene ('desaturase gene'), that increases the unsaturated fatty acid content of the plant's cell, operably linked with a signal for protein retrieval and retention in the endoplasmic reticulum. Equivalent transgenic plants transformed with only the desaturase gene, without the retrieval and retention signal, had no effect on the content of saturated fatty acids in seed oil. One example of the invention is a plant expressing a heterologous delta-9 desaturase gene from cyanobacterium Anacystis nidulans, which particularly converts lipid-bound 16:0 and 18:0 fatty acids into corresponding 16:1 and 18:1, respectively.