Investigations into the regulation of lipid biosynthesis in Brassica napus using antisense down-regulation

We have generated antisense plants of Brassica napus, targeting either the cytoplasmic Type I acetyl-CoA carboxylase or the beta-ketoacyl-acyl carrier protein reductase of the Type II dissociable fatty acid synthase, in order to investigate the importance of these components in regulating lipid metabolism in plants. Using a range of down-regulated plants, it has become clear that down-regulation of these genes also causes down-regulation of other components of lipid metabolism, at the activity, translational and transcriptional levels. These plants exhibit effects, not immediately predicted, on oil yield and carbon resource allocation in seeds.