High oleic acid canola

The canola line 23-18-17 was genetically engineered to express modified seed fatty acid content, specifically high levels of lauric acid and myristic acid. The increased levels of lauric acid in oil from the modified canola lines allow for its use as a replacement for other lauric acid oils, such as coconut and palm kernel oil, in products such as confectionery coatings and fillings, margarines, spreads, shortenings and commercial frying oils.

The modified fatty acid content of 23-18-17 is a result of the insertion of a thioesterase (TE) encoding gene from the California bay tree, Umbellularia californica, which is an alternative source of the spice "bay leaf" that is harvested commercially from Lauris nobilis. The introduced thioesterase enzyme is active in the fatty acid biosynthetic pathway of the developing seed and causes the accumulation of triacylglycerides containing esterified lauric acid and, to a lesser extent, myristic acid.

pCGN3828-212/86-18

The original transformation event 23 was estimated to have 15 copies of the genes, at five independent genetic loci, as shown by Southern and segregation analyses. Lines 23-198 and 23-18-17 are several generations removed from the original transformant. Mendelian inheritance, and Southern and PCR analyses of third-generation material show the stability of the introduced genes as the bands did not change position. Some of the copies are segregating out, as expected, so that these lines may not be homogeneous for the number of copies present.