Creating ultra‐high linolenic acid camelina by co‐expressing AtFAD2sm with synonymous mutations and BnFAD3 in the fae1 mutant

Abstract

Alpha-linolenic acid (α-linolenic acid, ALA, 18:3) is an ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA), which along with linoleic acid (LA, 18:2, ω6) is essential for human nutrition that must be obtained through dietary sources due to the absence of Δ12/Δ15 fatty acid desaturases in mammals. Vegetable oils rich in 18:3, such as flaxseed oil, are prone to oxidation, leading to issues like a short shelf-life. The modern oilseed industry addressed this issue by developing high-oleic/low-18:3 vegetable oils to improve their oxidative stability. However, this contributed to the severe imbalance of these essential fatty acids and the very high dietary ω6/ω3 ratio that promotes the pathogenesis of many diseases, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, and inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. Therefore, it is desirable to develop high-18:3 oil crops to improve human health. Camelina (Camelina sativa L. Crantz), a flexible and low-input oilseed crop, contains a high content of 18:3 (31%–40%) in seeds, which represents a potential source (Berti et al., 2016).