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The focus of our research attempts to provide the basic biochemical information needed to apply the currently available tools of biotechnology to produce modified vegetable oils. Vegetable oils obtained from such agronomically important crops as soybean and corn offer one of the best targets for the application of biotechnology. The objective is to improve and even create new vegetable oils for a wide variety of nutritional and industrial applications. Although the methods of biotechnology have advanced sufficiently to incorporate and regulate genes in plants, few have successfully altered the oil composition of a seed by applying the tools of molecular biology. The reason for the lack of success is directly related to our poor understanding of the regulation of biosynthesis of triglycerides, the primary component of vegetable oils. Our goal is to identify some of the key regulatory sites of triglyceride biosynthesis and clone the relevant genes. These genes will then be tested directly to determine if they can be used to alter the normal composition of a vegetable oil. As a result of these types of studies, we expect to advance our basic knowledge of the regulatory mechanisms used by plants to control primary metabolism, especially in nonphotosynthetic parts of plants. References A. Hlousek-Radojcic, H. Imar, J.G. Jaworski, "Oleoy-CoA is not an Immediate Substrate for Fatty Acid Elongation in Developing Seeds of Brassica napus " Plant J., 1995, 8, 803-809. J. Kopka, J.B. Ohlrogge, J.G. Jaworski, "Analysis of in vivo Levels of Acyl-Thioesters with Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry of the Butylamide-Derivatives," Anal. Biochem., 1995, 224, 51-60. H. Tai, D. Post-Beittenmiller, J.G. Jaworski, "Cloning of a cDNA Encoding 3-ketoacyl Acyl Carrier Protein Synthase III from Arabidopsis," Plant Physiology, 1994, 104, 801- 802. J.G. Jaworski, H. Tai, J.B. Ohlrogge, D. Post-Beittenmiller, "The Initial Reactions of Fatty Acid Biosynthesis in Plants," Prog. Lipid Res., 1994, 33, 47-54. H. Tai, J.G. Jaworski, "3-Ketoacyl Acyl Carrier Protein Synthase III from Spinach (Spinacia oleracea) is not Similar to Other Condensing Enzymes of Fatty Acid Synthase ," Plant Physiology, 1993, 103, 1361-1367. J.G. Jaworski, D. Post-Beittenmiller, J.B. Ohlrogge, "Acetyl-Acyl Carrier Protein is not a Major Intermediate in Fatty Acid Biosynthesis in Spinach," Eur. J. Biochem. 1993 ,213, 981-987.
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