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New method of extracting edible oil

  • 30/07/2006

It may now be possible to bio-engineer plants to produce more oil. Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore have come up with a new mechanism to produce more oil. They have also brought out the shortcomings of the existing system of extracting oil. Ram Rajasekharan, the lead researcher, reported the complete set of genes involved in oil (or fat) production in living organisms. The report was published on the website of the journal Plant Physiology.

The researchers say that the existing system of extracting oil is not the primary oil production pathway in plants. Instead, it is the one plants use to maintain internal systems. No wonder, scientists have been finding it difficult to increase oil production, despite significant advances in molecular biology.

The identification and isolation of genes involved in primary plant production may change all that. According to Rajasekharan, plants receive a limited number of carbon atoms through photosynthesis. These carbon atoms are used to produce two major components

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