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Transgenic barley producing essential polyunsaturated fatty acids

  • Original Papers
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Biologia Plantarum

Abstract

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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Abbreviations

ALA:

α-linolenic acid

D6D:

Δ6-desaturase

DGLA:

dihomo-γ-linoleic acid

HMM:

high-molecular-mass

GAPDH:

glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase

GLA:

γ-linolenic acid

LA:

linoleic acid

OA:

oleic acid

PUFA:

polyunsaturated fatty acid

SDA:

stearidonic acid

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Plant Production Research Center, Bratislavská cesta 122, SK-92168, Piešťany, Slovak Republic

    D. Mihálik, M. Gubišová, K. Ondreičková, M. Hudcovicová, L. Klčová, J. Gubiš, I. Dokupilová, L. Ohnoutková & J. Kraic

  2. Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology, Slovak University of Technology, Radlinského 9, SK-81237, Bratislava, Slovak Republic

    T. Klempová, M. Čertík & I. Dokupilová

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  1. D. Mihálik
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  2. M. Gubišová
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  3. T. Klempová
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  4. M. Čertík
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  5. K. Ondreičková
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  6. M. Hudcovicová
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  8. J. Gubiš
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  9. I. Dokupilová
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  10. L. Ohnoutková
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  11. J. Kraic
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Correspondence to D. Mihálik.

Additional information

Acknowledgements: This work was supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency (the contract Nos. APVV-0294-11 and APVV-0662-11). We would like to thank Dr. H.D. Jones for providing the pLRPT vector.

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Mihálik, D., Gubišová, M., Klempová, T. et al. Transgenic barley producing essential polyunsaturated fatty acids. Biol Plant 58, 348–354 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10535-014-0406-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10535-014-0406-9

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