Regulation of Seed Storage Lipid accumulation

Rapeseed oil is utilised in a wide variety of applications from the food industry through to industrial applications. The end use suitability is determined by the fatty acid (FA) composition of the oil therefore the identification of genes involved in the control of FA composition and molecular markers to facilitate selective breeding for oil traits are key targets in rapeseed research.

Arabidopsis thaliana is an oilseed species and has been used for much of the work to understand seed lipid biosynthesis. Seed physiology and development in the Brassicas is similar to that of Arabidopsis and advances in the understanding of Arabidopsis seed lipid metabolism should assist Brassica research and enable the identification and subsequent transfer of the beneficial alleles in the crop background to elite commercial cultivars.

To identify and investigate genomic regions that affect total seed oil content and its composition we are using both:

• Arabidopsis thaliana 
• Brassica napus