Process For The Production Of Arachidonic Acid And/or Eicosapentaenoic Acid (Patent CA 3021294 A1)

The present invention relates to a new process for the production of arachidonic acid and/or eicosapentaenoic acid in plants through the co-expression of a ”-12-/”-15-desaturase, ”-9-elongase, ”-8-desaturase and a ”-5-desaturase and a process for the production of lipids or oils having an increased content of unsaturated fatty acids, in particular É-3 and w-6 fatty acids having at least two double bonds and a 18 or 20 carbon atom chain length. Preferably the arachidonic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid are produced in at least a 1:2 ratio. The invention furthermore relates to the production of a transgenic plants, preferably a transgenic crop plant, having an increased content of arachidonic acid and/or eicosapentaenoic acid, oils or lipids containing C 18 - or C 20 - fatty acids with a double bond in position ”–¡–¡5. 8, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15 or 17 of the fatty acid produced, respectively due to the expression of the ”-12-/”-15-desaturase, of the ”-9-elongase, of the ”-8-desaturase and of the ”-5-desaturase in the plant. The expression of the inventive ”-12-/”-15-desaturase leads preferably to linoleic acid and linolenic acid as products having a double bond in the position ”–¡–¡ 9, 12 and 15 of the fatty acid. The invention additionally relates to specific nucleic acid sequences encoding for proteins with ”-12-/”-15-desaturase-, ”-9-elongase-, A-8-desaturase- or ”-5-desaturase-activity, nucleic acid constructs, vectors and transgenic plants containing said nucleic acid sequences.