Transgenic barley producing essential polyunsaturated fatty acids
2014
Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) affect diverse physiological processes and human health. Most cereals are poor in n-3 and n-6 PUFAs. Using biolistics, barley (Hordeum vulgare L. cv. Golden Promise) was transformed with an artificial gene encoding Δ⁶-desaturase (D6D) under an endosperm-specific promoter. This artificial gene was designed from the sequence of D6D of the filamentous fungus Thamnidium elegans, but codon usage was optimised for cereals. A signal sequence from the gene encoding for high molecular mass glutenin Dx5 was added to a destinate mature protein. Successful transformation was confirmed in T₀ plants at the genomic level and in T₁ seeds at the transcriptomic and metabolomic levels. Transformed plants produced up to 0.141 % of γ-linolenic acid (GLA) and 0.294 % of stearidonic acid (SDA) of the total amount of fatty acids in their grains. Although the content of these fatty acids was relatively low, the current study provides the first evidence that transgenic barley can be a source of GLA/SDA.
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