MUTANT .DELTA.8 DESATURASE GENES ENGINEERED BY TARGETED MUTAGENESIS AND THEIR USE IN MAKING POLYUNSATURATED FATTY ACIDS

摘要

The present invention relates to mutant .DELTA.8 desaturase genes, which have the ability to convert eicosadienoic acid [20:2 .omega.-6, EDA] to dihomo-.gamma.-linolenic acid [20:3, DGLA] and/or eicosatrienoic acid [20:3 .omega.-3, ETrA] to eicosatetraenoic acid [20:3 .omega.-3, ETA]. Isolated nucleic acid fragments and recombinant constructs comprising such fragments encoding .DELTA.8 desaturase along with methods of making long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) using these mutant .DELTA.8 desaturases in plants and oleaginous yeast are disclosed.