Author： Whitney Heather M.
Publisher： Oxford University Press
ISSN： 1460-2431
Source： Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.55, Iss.397, 2004-03, pp. : 787-789
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Abstract
The seed lipids of some higher plants contain unusual fatty acids with potentially valuable non‐food uses. Seeds of Bassia scoparia contain one such monounsaturated fatty acid, 16:1Δ5. This fatty acid can be used for the production of an insect oviposition pheromone, which is potentially valuable in the control of the mosquito Culex quinquefasciatus, a vector of West Nile virus. Previous work has established that a number of unusual monounsaturated fatty acids are produced by variant forms of the ubiquitous acyl‐ACP desaturases. The isolation and initial characterization of two putative acyl‐ACP desaturases from B. scoparia, one of which is seed‐specific, suggests that such a variant enzyme occurs in this species.
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