Erucic acid is a valuable industrial fatty acid with many applications. The main producers of this acid are today high erucic rapeseed (Brassica napus) and mustard (Brassica juncea), which have 45%-50% of erucic acid in their seed oils. Crambe abyssinica is an alternative promising producer of this acid as it has 55%-60% of erucic acid in its oil. Through genetic modification (GM) of three gene...

The biosynthetic pathways of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids consist of many steps controlled by various enzymes. One of the methods for improving oil quality is to change the fatty acid profile through genetic manipulation which requires isolation and characterization of the genes and other cis-acting elements, such as the promoter, involved in fatty acid biosynthesis. b-ketoacyl-CoA syn...

Lysophosphatidic acid acyltransferase acylates the sn-2 hydroxyl group of lysophosphatidic acid to form phosphatidic acid, a precursor to triacylglycerol. A cDNA encoding lysophosphatidic acid acyltransferase was isolated from developing seeds of meadowfoam (Limnanthes alba alba). The cDNA encodes a 281-amino acid protein with a molecular mass of 32 kD. The cDNA was expressed in developing seed...

Over the last fifteen years, considerable progress has been made in the field of “green chemistry”, as regards both research aspects and market development. In particular, extraction of erucic acid (C22:1) from plants and its industrial applications have received increasing attention. At present, known species producing oils yielding large quantities of erucic acid belong, with few exceptions, ...

The US industry uses :18 million kg of high erucic acid oil annually, mostly from imports. Therefore, a large overall market potential exists for development of annually renewable domestic sources of erucic acid. The present research was conducted to characterize the winter hardy rapeseed germplasm for oil, erucic acid, and glucosinolate contents for use in breeding programs to develop commerci...

Twenty-two genotypes of Brassica (B. rapa, B. juncea, and B. napus) were studied for correlation co-efficient between major fatty acids and path coefficient analysis to partition the cause and effect relationship into direct and indirect components. Correlation coefficient of major fatty acids revealed that significant and positive correlation was between palmitic and oleic acids, palmitic and ...

The modification of erucic acid content in seeds is one of the major goals for quality breeding in oil-yielding Brassica species. However, few low erucic acid (LEA) resources are available, and novel LEA genetic resources are being sought. Fatty acid elongase 1 (FAE1) is the key gene that controls erucic acid synthesis. However, the mechanism for erucic acid synthesis in B. rapa lacks systemati...

A genomic fatty acid elongation 1 (FAE1) clone was isolated from Crambe abyssinica. The genomic clone corresponds to a 1521-bp open reading frame, which encodes a protein of 507 amino acids. In yeast cells expression of CrFAE led to production of new very long chain monounsaturated fatty acids such as eicosenoic (20:1(delta11)) and erucic (22:1(delta13)) acids. Seed-specific expression in Arabi...

the biosynthetic pathways of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids consist of many steps controlled by various enzymes. one of the methods for improving oil quality is to change the fatty acid profile through genetic manipulation which requires isolation and characterization of the genes and other cis-acting elements, such as the promoter, involved in fatty acid biosynthesis. b-ketoacyl-coa syn...