Transgenic rapeseed plants

A different type of application is to use genetic engineering to increase the amount of commercially useful substance in a plant. Transgenic rapeseed... 

Seed oil bodies in plants are surrounded by a monolayer of highly imusual and abundant proteins, the oleosins, which can comprise as much as 8-15% total seed protein [1,2]. However, relatively little is known about the subcellular targeting and processing of oleosins, and their role in oil-body formation and maturation. We have expressed a soybean 24 kDa oleosin in transgenic rapeseed, in order to elucidate these issues. Detailed experimental data will be published elsewhere [3], but in this report, we discuss the implications of our findings for the mechanism of oil-body ontogeny in plants. 

Lassner, M.W., Levering, C.K., Davies, H.M, Knutzon, D.S. (1995) Lysophosphatidic acid acyltransferase from meadowfoam mediates insertion of erucic acid at the sn-2 position of triacylglycerol in transgenic rapeseed oil. Plant Physiol. 109, 1389-1394. 

Ecological concern exists about transmission of pollen from some types of plant, such as the Brassicas and tree crops, either into weedy relatives or into crops grown at some distance. This problem is not limited to transgenic plants. Canola, a rape-seed cultivar bred to produce low glucosinolates and low erucic acid, must be planted in isolation from industrial rapeseed, as each crop will result in seed with altered composition from the ideal that is, excessive erucic acid in the canola and less erucic acid in the industrial rapeseed. Because the products of industrial crops are not intended for consumption, and may even be noxious, risk management and containment, including the prevention of intercrop cross-pollination, is... 

A cDNA encoding such a thioesterase was isolated from seeds of the California Bay tree and transformed into rapeseed. As shown in Fig. 11, the introduction of this specialized thioesterase resulted in transgenic seeds that produced up to 60 mol% lauric acid. The plants grow normally and oil yields are very similar to those of the untransformed cultivars. Commercial production of high lauric rapeseed oil began in 1995. Although this crop has the potential to provide a new, non-tropical source of lauric oils for... 

The most widely planted genetically modified food crops are soybeans, corn, rapeseed (the source of canola oil), and cotton. The percentages of these crops that were transgenic in 2002 were as follows ... 

In summary, limited anaiysis of the 12 0-containing rapeseed oii suggests that 12 0 is incorporated into most trigiyceride size and saturation ciasses but that the incorporation is not uniform amongst the srr-acyl groups. Considerable discrimination probabiy occurs at sn-2. To enhance the iaurate incorporation at sn-2 in these transgenic plants we have commenced the isolation of a suitable LPAAT. 

Weier, D., Hanke, C., Eickelkamp, A., Luhs, W., Dettendorfer, J., Schaffert, E., Mollers, C., Friedt, W., Wolter, F.P., Frentzen, M., 1997. Trierucoylglycerol biosynthesis in transgenic plants of rapeseed (Brassica napus L.). FETT/Iipid 99,160-165. 

Fukuoka, H., Ogawa, T, Matsuoka, M., Ohkawa, Y., Yano, H., 1998. Direct gene delivery into isolated microspores of rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) and the production of fertile transgenic plants. Plant Cell Rep. 17, 323-328. 

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