Abstract
Castor bean (Ricinus communis) produces a seed oil that contains nearly 90% ricinoleic acid (12-hydroxyoctadeca-9-cis-enoic acid: 18:1-OH). This fatty acid is a valuable industrial raw material and is used in a wide variety of processes and products. In castor, 18:1-OH is synthesized by the 012-hydroxylation of oleate esterified to the sn-2 position of phosphatidylcholine (Bafor et al., 1991). The reaction is catalysed by an enzyme that is closely related to a FAD2 (ER-Δ12) desaturase (van de Loo et al., 1995). We have been using Arabidopsis lines, transformed with a gene construct encoding the castor hydroxylase, as a model system to study the synthesis and accumulation of hydroxy fatty acids in the seed.
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