MUTANT DELTA-8 DESATURASE GENES ENGINEERED BY TARGETED MUTAGENESIS AND THEIR USE IN MAKING POLYUNSATURATED FATTY ACIDS

摘要

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.