Heart failure continues to be a leading cause of mortality worldwide. A hallmark of this disease is dilated cardiac hypertrophy, which is accompanied by a reactivation of genes expressed in fetal heart development.

Molecular gene transfer techniques have been used to engineer the fatty acid composition of Brassica rpa and Brassica napus (canola) oil. Stearoyl-acyl carrier protein (stearoyl-ACP) desaturase (EC 1.14.99.6) catalyzes the first desaturation step in seed oil biosynthesis, converting stearoyl-ACP to oleoyl-ACP. Seed-specific antisense gene constructs ofB. rapa stearoyl-ACP desaturase were used to reduce the protein concentration and enzyme activity of stearoyl-ACP desaturase in developing rapeseed embryos during storage lipid biosynthesis. The resulting transgenic plants showed dramatically increased stearate levels in the seeds. A continuous distribution of stearate levels from 2% to 40% was observed in seeds of a transgenic B. napus plant, illustrating the potential to engineer specialized seed oil compositions.Canola and other temperate vegetable oils are composed predominantly of unsaturated 18-carbon fatty acids: the monounsaturated oleic (18:1) and polyunsaturated linoleic (18:2) and linolenic (18:3) acids. In addition to these fatty acids, most oils also contain small but significant amounts of the saturated palmitic (16:0) and stearic (18:0) acids (1). The plastid-localized enzyme stearoyl-acyl carrier protein (stearoyl-ACP) desaturase (EC 1.14.99.6) catalyzes the initial desaturation reaction in fatty acid biosynthesis (Fig. 1A) and thus plays a key role in determining the ratio oftotal saturated to unsaturated fatty acids in plants (2,4,5).Specialized fatty acid compositions desired for edible and industrial purposes have been produced in oilseed crops through traditional breeding and selection alone or in combination with mutagenesis programs (6-9). Although the molecular basis for the changes is largely unknown, examples such as the removal of erucic acid from rapeseed oil to create canola (10), reduction of linolenic acid content in flax seed (11), and increases in stearate content of up to six times the wild-type level in safflower (up to 12% stearate) (12) and soybean (up to 30%o stearate) oil (13,14) demonstrate the plasticity of fatty acid composition in seed oil. It should also be possible to modify seed oil composition by the use of genetic engineering techniques (15-17). Antisense RNA technology has proven to be an effective means of reducing the level of specific enzymes in plants (18-21). Because fatty acid biosynthesis is an essential metabolic pathway in all tissues ofthe plant, modification of seed oil biosynthesis may require tissue-specific control of antisense RNA expression. Reduction of stearoyl-ACP desaturase in seeds should alter the ratio of saturated to unsaturated fatty acids and lead to the production of a novel storage oil without compromising the integrity of membrane lipids in leaf and other plant tissues.We report the isolation of a Brassica rapa (syn. Brassica campestris, turnip rape) stearoyl-ACP desaturase cDNAt and expression of antisense stearoyl-ACP desaturase constructs in seeds of B. rapa and Brassica napus. The activity and amount of stearoyl-ACP desaturase...

The Mexican shrub Cuphea hookeriana accumulates up to 75% caprylate (8:0) and caprate (10:0) in its seed oil. An acyl-ACP thioesterase cDNA from C. hookeriana, designated Ch FatB2, has been identified, which, when expressed in Escherichia coli, provides thioesterase activity specific for 8:0- and 10:0-ACP substrates. Expression of this clone in seeds of transgenic canola, an oilseed crop that normally does not accumulate any 8:0 and 10:0, resulted in a dramatic increase in the levels of these two fatty acids accompanied by a preferential decrease in the levels of linoleate (18:2) and linolenate (18:3). The Ch FatB2 differs from Ch FatB1, another Cuphea hookeriana thioesterase reported recently, in both substrate specificity and expression pattern. The Ch FatB1 has a broad substrate specificity with strong preference for 16:0-ACP and is expressed throughout the plant; whereas Ch FatB2 is specific for 8:0/10:0-ACP and its expression is confined to the seed. It is proposed that the amplified expression of Ch FatB2 in the embryo provides the hydrolytic enzyme specificity determining the fatty acyl composition of Cuphea hookeriana seed oil.

Two cDNA clones with homology to known desaturase genes were isolated from the fungus Mortierella alpina. The open reading frame in one clone encoded 399 amino acids and exhibited delta12-desaturase activity when expressed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae in the presence of endogenous fatty acid substrate oleic acid. The insert in another clone contained an open reading frame encoding 457 amino acids and exhibited delta6-desaturase activity in S. cerevisiae in the presence of exogenous fatty acid substrate linoleic acid. Expression of the delta12-desaturase gene under appropriate media and temperature conditions led to the production of linoleic acid at levels up to 25% of the total fatty acids in yeast. When linoleic acid was provided as an exogenous substrate to the yeast cultures expressing the delta6-desaturase activity, the level of gamma-linolenic acid reached 10% of the total yeast fatty acids. Co-expression of both the delta6- and delta12-desaturase cDNA resulted in the endogenous production of gamma-linolenic acid. The yields of gamma-linolenic acid reached as high as 8% of total fatty acids in yeast.

A DNA fragment with homology to ⌬6-desaturases from borage and cyanobacteria was isolated after polymerase chain reaction amplification of Mortierella alpina cDNA with oligonucleotide primers corresponding to the conserved regions of known ⌬6-desaturase genes. This fragment was used as a probe to isolate a cDNA clone with an open reading frame encoding 446 amino acids from a M. alpina library. Expression of this open reading frame from an inducible promoter in Saccharomyces cerevisiae in the presence of various substrates revealed that the recombinant product had ⌬5-desaturase activity. The effects of growth and induction conditions as well as host strain on activity of the recombinant ⌬5-desaturase in S. cerevisiae were evaluated. Expression of the M. alpina ⌬5-desaturase cDNA in transgenic canola seeds resulted in the production of taxoleic acid (⌬5,9 -18:2) and pinolenic acid (⌬5,9,12-18: 3), which are the ⌬5-desaturation products of oleic and linoleic acids, respectively.

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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 m a s of 32 kD. The cDNA was expressed in developing seeds of transgenic high-erucic-acid rapeseed (Brassica napus) using a napin expression cassette. Erucic acid was present at the sn-2 position of triacylglycerols from transgenic plants but was absent from that position of seed oil extracted from control plants. Trierucin was present in the transgenic oil. Alteration of the sn-2 erucic acid composition did not affect the total erucic acid content. These experiments demonstrate the feasibility of using acyltransferases to alter the stereochemical composition of transgenic seed oils and also representa necessary step toward increasing the erucic acid content of rapeseed oil.

The fatty acyl groups found in membrane phospholipids of higher plants are predominantly 16 or 18 carbons in length. However, the seed TAGs of many plants contain large amounts of fatty acyl groups different from those found in the phospholipids, suggesting that mechanisms exist for partitioning of specific fatty acids into the TAG fraction. Seed storage TAGs are synthesized in the ER from acyl-COA and glycerol-3-P in a series of reactions termed the Kennedy pathway (reviewed by Stymne and Stobart, 1987;Frentzen, 1993). The first step of this pathway is the acylation of the sn-1 position of glycerol-3-P (catalyzed by glycerol-3-P acyltransferase) to form 1-acyl sn-glycerol-3-P, also termed LPA. The sn-2 position of LPA is subsequently acylated to yield PA in a reaction catalyzed by 1-acyl sn-glycerol-3-P acyltransferase (EC 2.3.1.51). This enzyme is more commonly known as LPAAT. Formation of TAG is completed by dephosphorylation of PA to produce diacylglycerol and the transfer of a third acyl group to the sn-3 position of the glycerol backbone by diacylglycerol acyltransferase. Synthesis of precursors of membrane phospholipids can also occur via a similar set of enzymatic steps