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Designer plants

US SCIENTISTS have used genetic engineering to change the function of a plant enzyme for the first time. The breakthrough paves the way for designer plants that can be used as a source of food, fuel and renewable raw materials.

John Shanklin headed a team of biochemists from Brookhaven National Laboratory and the Carnegie Institution of Stanford University, USA. They worked on two enzymes, desaturase and hydroxylase, taken from related species of cruciferous plants. Desaturase converts the single bonds in fatty acids to double bonds, and hydroxylase adds a hydroxy group to fatty acid structures.

The chemical changes alter the physical properties of plant oils. The us researchers identified which amino acid sequences caused the activity of each enzyme. They then altered the genetic blueprint of the plants. By placing the modified genes into an Arabidopsis plant, the scien- tists could tell whether they had been successful.

Analysis of the plant's seed oil showed that the process had worked.

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