Researchers at Hebei University of Engineering and Sichuan University in
China usedCRISPR-Cas9to boost the oleic acid content in tobacco oil.
This breakthrough could help improve the properties ofbio-dieselderived
from tobacco. The results are published in/BMC Plant Biology/.

Tobacco seed oil is a suitable feedstock for bio-diesel production.
However, this seed oil is susceptible to oxidation because of its high
linoleic acid content. FAD2 desaturates oleic acid into linoleic acid in
a specific portion of the cell. Previous studies have shown that
suppression of the/FAD2/gene
[www.isaaa.org]
tobacco could lead to an increase in oleic acid content. Thus, the
researchers identified the/FAD2/genes in tobacco and characterized them.
Seed type/FAD2/genes were knocked out in tobacco plants using
CRISPR-Cas9. The edited plants exhibited a significant increase of oleic
acid content from 11% to over 79%, while linoleic acid decreased from 72
to 7%. The fatty acid composition of the leaf remained unaffected.

Based on the results, CRISPR-Cas9 could be a rapid and effective tool in
tobacco seed lipid engineering research.

Design of high-oleic tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) seed oil by
CRISPR-Cas9-mediated knockout of NtFAD2â??2 | BMC Plant Biology | Full
Text (biomedcentral.com)
[bmcplantbiol.biomedcentral.com]