Mutant Δ8 desaturase genes engineered by targeted mutagenesis and their use in making polyunsaturated fatty acids
AssigneeE.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company
InventorsHoward Glenn Damude, Hongxian He, Der-Ing Liao, Quinn Qun Zhu
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Abstract
The present invention relates to mutant Δ8 desaturase genes, which have the ability to convert eicosadienoic acid [20:2 ω-6, EDA] to dihomo-γ-linolenic acid [20:3, DGLA] and/or eicosatrienoic acid [20:3 ω-3, ETrA] to eicosatetraenoic acid [20:3 ω-3, ETA]. Isolated nucleic acid fragments and recombinant constructs comprising such fragments encoding Δ8 desaturase along with methods of making long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) using these mutant Δ8 desaturases in plants and oleaginous yeast are disclosed.
Claims17
An isolated polypeptide having Δ8 desaturase activity comprising the amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:198, wherein SEQ ID NO:198 is not identical to SEQ ID NO:10.
A method for producing a polyunsaturated fatty acid comprising:
- a) providing an oleaginous yeast comprising:
- (i) a Δ8 desaturase polypeptide having the amino acid sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO:198, wherein SEQ ID NO:198 is not identical to SEQ ID NO:10;
- and,
- (ii) a source of substrate fatty acid selected from the group consisting of eicosadienoic acid and eicosatrienoic acid;
- b) growing the yeast of step (a) under conditions wherein the substrate fatty acid is converted to product polyunsaturated fatty acid, wherein eicosadienoic acid is converted to dihomo-γ-linoleic acid, and eicosatrienoic acid is converted to eicosatetraenoic acid, and;
- c) optionally recovering the product polyunsaturated fatty acid of step (b).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.