Department of Biological Chemistry, Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Herts, AL5 2JQ, UK.
Prostaglandins Leukot Essent Fatty Acids. 2011 Nov;85(5):253-60. doi: 10.1016/j.plefa.2011.04.013. Epub 2011 May 18.
Growing evidence suggests that omega-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (VLC-PUFAs), especially eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA; 20:5Δ5,8,11,14,17) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA; 22:6Δ4,7,10,13,16,19) play critical roles in human health and development. VLC-PUFAs are mainly found in fish, some fungi, marine bacteria and microalgae. Currently, the predominant dietary sources of VLC-PUFAs are marine fish and seafood. However, the increasing demand for fish and fish oils is putting enormous pressure on marine ecosystems leading to a depletion of fish stocks while commercial cultivation of marine microorganisms and aquaculture are not sustainable and cannot compensate for the shortage in fish supply. Therefore, there is an obvious requirement for an alternative and sustainable source for VLC-PUFAs. Over the last decade, many genes encoding the primary VLC-PUFAs biosynthetic activities became available providing a toolkit for the "reverse-engineering" of transgenic plants to produce fish oils. In this review, we will describe the recent advances in this field and the insights they give us into the complexities of metabolic engineering of oil-seed crops producing VLC-PUFAs.
越来越多的证据表明，ω-3 长链多不饱和脂肪酸（VLC-PUFAs），尤其是二十碳五烯酸（EPA；20:5Δ5,8,11,14,17）和二十二碳六烯酸（DHA；22:6Δ4,7,10,13,16,19）在人类健康和发育中起着至关重要的作用。VLC-PUFAs 主要存在于鱼类、某些真菌、海洋细菌和微藻中。目前，VLC-PUFAs 的主要膳食来源是海洋鱼类和海鲜。然而，鱼类和鱼油的需求不断增加，给海洋生态系统带来了巨大压力，导致鱼类资源枯竭，而海洋微生物的商业养殖和水产养殖是不可持续的，无法弥补鱼类供应的短缺。因此，需要一种替代的、可持续的 VLC-PUFAs 来源。在过去的十年中，许多编码 VLC-PUFAs 生物合成主要活性的基因已经可用，为通过“反向工程”转基因植物生产鱼油提供了一个工具包。在这篇综述中，我们将描述该领域的最新进展，并探讨它们为我们深入了解生产 VLC-PUFAs 的油脂作物的代谢工程的复杂性提供的见解。
