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In this article we will discuss about the improvement of seed oil (pufa oil) for health benefits.
Plant oil containing greatest degree of fatty acids is essential nutrients for animal including human being. The unsaturated fatty acid rice oil undoubtedly increases nutritional value of edible oil. Polies unsaturated fatty acids are popularly known as PUFA oil play a critical role in maintain cellular membranes through the regulation of cholesterol synthesis and its transport.
Source of medical studies reveals that daily dictery intake of n-3 poly unsaturated fatty acid a- linolenic acid has significant health benefits especially in risk of coronary heart disease. Considering its nutrition value several attempts were made to modify or improvise seed oil accumulates high degree of unsaturated oil.
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Microsomal omega-3 fatty acid desaturase is an essential enzyme in the production of n-3 poly unsaturated fatty acid α-linolenic acid during seed development. One of the major dietery source α-linolenic acids is the vegetable oil present in the seeds of flax (Linum usitatissimum) and perilla (Perilla fructescence) at the level of 40-50% of the total fatty acid content.
These plants however, could not use as chief oil source. Thus, developing a plant substitute possessing good agronomic value is highly desirable. Rice is one of the most important crops cultivated throughout Asia and their oil (Rice bran) is an important oil source in Japan, but rice seed contain less than 2% of the total fatty acid content of many rice cultivars.
Therefore, rice can be engineered to produce α-linolenic acid as it shows high agronomic preference.
α-linolenic acid is produced by introduction of double bond into the precursor linolenic acid by an enzyme omega-3 fatty acid desaturase occur mainly in the plastids. In the transformation approach soyabean microsomal omega-3 fatty acid desaturase gene is transferred to rice plant under the control of strong maize ubiquitin promoter. The resulting transgenic rice plants are able to synthesize high amount of α-linolenic acid.
