PRODUCTION OF MODIFIED FATTY ACIDS IN PLANTS THROUGH rDNA TARGETED INTEGRATION OF HETEROLOGOUS GENES

Abstract

The present invention relates to transgenic plants comprising a plurality of nucleic acids heterologous to said plant, each of said nucleic acid comprising a coding sequence operably linked to one or more regulatory elements for directing expression of said coding sequence in said plant, said nucleic acid being stably integrated at or adjacent to rDNA sequences, or a seed, organ, tissue, part or cell thereof, or a descendant of said plant, seed, organ, tissue, part or cell; methods of producing the transgenic plants; and methods of producing oil using the transgenic plants.

1 . A plant oil comprising a composition of fatty acids not normally found in native unmodified oil of the same species, said plant oil produced by a method comprising extracting oil from a transgenic plant having altered fatty acid content relative to a wildtype of said plant;
 said transgenic plant comprising first and second nucleic acid constructs that are heterologous to said plant and are stably integrated at or adjacent to ribosomal DNA (rDNA) of said plant;   said first nucleic acid construct comprising a nucleotide sequence of at least 100 contiguous nucleotides, said nucleotide sequence possessing at least 50% identity over its entire length to a native rDNA sequence of said plant;   said second nucleic acid construct comprising a coding sequence operably linked to one or more regulatory elements for directing expression of said coding sequence in said plant, said coding sequence encoding a gene product associated with plant fatty acid metabolism;   wherein a plurality of said second nucleic acid constructs are integrated at or adjacent to rDNA of said plant in sufficiently close proximity to one another that they segregate together as a single genetic locus.   
     
     
         2 . The plant oil according to  claim 1 , wherein said second nucleic acid construct is present in 2 to 60 copies integrated at or adjacent to native rDNA of said plant. 
     
     
         3 . The plant oil according to  claim 1 , wherein said second nucleic acid construct encodes  nasturtium  FAE-1,  Arabidopsis  FAE-1 and/or  Saccharomyces cerevisae  SLC-1. 
     
     
         4 . The plant oil according to  claim 1 , wherein said plant is a canola,  Brassica, Jatropha , soybean, maize, borage, castor,  Camelina , cratmbe spp., flax,  Nasturtium , olive, palm, peanut, rapeseed, or sunflower plant, or a member of the Chlorophyceae. 
     
     
         5 . The plant oil according to  claim 1 , which is an edible oil. 
     
     
         6 . The plant oil according to  claim 1 , which is a non-edible oil. 
     
     
         7 . The plant oil according to  claim 1 , which is extracted from seeds of said transgenic plant. 
     
     
         8 . The plant oil according to  claim 1 , comprising very long chain fatty acids. 
     
     
         9 . The plant oil according to  claim 1 , which is a feedstock for production of biofuel. 
     
     
         10 . The plant oil according to  claim 1 , comprising a higher content of C18 fatty acids than oil obtained from the native plant from which said transgenic plant is produced. 
     
     
         11 . The plant oil according to  claim 1 , comprising a higher content of C20 fatty acids than oil obtained from the native plant from which said transgenic plant is produced. 
     
     
         12 . The plant oil according to  claim 1 , comprising a higher content of C22 fatty acids than oil obtained from the native plant from which said transgenic plant is produced. 
     
     
         13 . The plant oil according to  claim 1 , comprising a higher content of C24 fatty acids than oil obtained from the native plant from which said transgenic plant is produced.