Synthesis of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids by recombinant cell

摘要

The present invention relates to methods of synthesizing long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, especially eicosapentaenoic acid, docosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid, in recombinant cells such as yeast or plant cells. Also provided are recombinant cells or plants which produce long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids. Furthermore, the present invention relates to a group of new enzymes which possess desatorase or elongase activity that can be used in methods of synthesizing long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids.

主权项

1. A process for producing a composition, the process comprising
(i) obtaining a yeast cell comprising
eicosapentaenoic acid and docosapentaenoic acid in an esterified form as part of triacylglycerols in the yeast cell;a polynucleotide which encodes a Δ5 desaturase operably linked to a promoter which directs expression of the polynucleotide in the yeast cell;a polynucleotide which encodes a Δ8 desaturase operably linked to a promoter which directs expression of the polynucleotide in the yeast cell;a polynucleotide which encodes a Δ9 elongase operably linked to a promoter which directs expression of the polynucleotide in the yeast cell;an exogenous desaturase which desaturates an acyl-CoA substrate in the yeast cell; anda total fatty acid content in the yeast cell which includes 2.5% (w/w) C20 ω3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFAs) and 0.1% (w/w) docosapentaenoic acid, (ii) extracting oil comprising eicosapentaenoic acid from the cell, and (iii) processing the oil comprising eicosapentaenoic acid, thereby producing the composition comprising eicosapentaenoic acid.