Basf Plant Science Gmbh

Other

Danisco US Inc., Genencor Division

Scandinavian Biotechnology Research (scanbi) Ab

Genencor International, Inc.

Anders Dahlqvist

Antoni Banas

Sten Stymne

Marit Lenman

Hans Ronne

Ulf Stahl

Martijn Gipmans

Alokesh Ghosal

Ylva Lindqvist

Eva Wiberg

Line Sandager

Ulf St&aring;hl

Maureen Bafor

Michael Lee

Per-Olov Gummeson

Staffan Sjodal

Ulf Stähl

The present invention relates to the isolation, identification and characterization of nucleotide sequences encoding an enzyme catalysing the transfer of fatty acids from phospholipids to diacylglycerol in the biosynthetic pathway for the production of triacylglycerol, to said enzymes and process for the production of triacylglycerols.

Process for the production of triacylglycerols

The invention relates to at least one nucleotide sequence, derived from a nucleotide sequence encoding an acyltransferase polypeptide comprising at least one membrane-spanning region, encoding an improved active membrane independent acyltransferase polypeptide in which at least one amino acid residue of the membrane-spanning region has been deleted and/or substituted as compared to the original acyltransferase polypeptide, wherein the encoded active membrane independent acyltransferase polypeptide can produce fatty acid esters and/or fatty acid thioesters such as triacylglycerols, diacylglycerols, monoacylglycerols, phospholipids, glycolipids, waxesters, acylated carbohydrates, acylated amino acids, and lysolipids, e.g. lysophosphospholipid, lysolecithin. Thereby one single acyltransferase can be used for the production of a huge number of products. The invention also relates to means and methods for the production of such an improved active membrane independent acyltransferase and the use of such a membrane independent acyltransferase in industry.

Acyltransferase

The invention relates to methods for increasing the oil content in plants, preferably in plant seeds, by expressing a polypeptide from yeast. The invention furthermore relates to expression constructs for expressing the yeast polypeptide in plants, preferably in plant seeds, the transgenic plants expressing the yeast polypeptide and to the use of said transgenic plants for the production of food, feeds, seed, pharmaceuticals or fine chemicals, in particular for the production of oils.

Use of a gene for increasing the oil content in plants

The present invention relates to the use of a novel enzyme and its encoding gene for transformation. More specifically, the invention relates to the use of a gene encoding an enzyme with acyl-CoA:diacylglycerol acyltransferase activity. This gene expressed alone in transgenic organisms will increase the total amount of oil (i.e. triacylglycerols) that is produced.

Use of a class of enzymes and their encoding genes to increase the oil content in transgenic organisms

The present invention relates to a novel plant enzyme called delta 12 fatty acid acetylenase. This enzyme is responsible for the conversion of fatty acids to acetylenic acids and the invention relates to production of such acids. The invention also relates to use of cDNA encoding acetylenase, preferably,delta 12 acetylenase, for transforming organisms such as oil accumulating organisms selected from the group consisting of oil crops, oleogeneous yeasts and moulds. Furthermore, the invention relates to organisms such as oil accumulating organisms transformed with acetylenase cDNA, and to oils and other acetylenic compounds from said organisms.

Plant enzyme and use thereof

Growing community of inventors

Furulund, Sweden

Anders Dahlqvist