Enhanced production of squalene in plant systems

Abstract

Systems, methods and compositions for the inducible production of squalene in plants seeds, in part by downregulating the endogenous sterol production pathway, for example through heterologous expression of one or more inhibitory RNA molecules, and in a preferred embodiment a novel hairpin multiple RNAi molecules that target paralogs of squalene epoxidase (SQE). Downregulating SQE causes a buildup of squalene by both blocking downstream conversion of squalene into sterols and releasing the negative feedback loop that sterols have with the upstream MVA pathway.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.