Food Lipids: Chemistry, Nutrition, and Biotechnology

30
Genetic Engineering of Crops That
Produce Vegetable Oil
VIC C. KNAUF and ANTHONY J. DEL VECCHIO
Monsanto Inc., Davis, California
I. INTRODUCTION
A new oilseed crop was introduced commercially in the southern United States in
the fall of 1994. The crop looked no different from normal varieties of Brassica
napus canola. The farmer cultivated and harvested the crop without departing from
standard canola harvesting practice. The oilseed meal, after crushing, was essentially
the same as regular canola meal and, indeed, was treated simply as standard canola
meal for use in animal feeds. The resulting vegetable oil, however, was unique and
different from any previously available for either food or industrial uses (1).
The new oilseed crop was derived from transgenic canola developed by a
biotechnology company. The genetic engineering approach was targeted toward a
lauric acid rich oil in this case, but the technology is being used to develop other
new vegetable oils with novel structure and compositions. In this chapter, we discuss
some of the oils that may result and also some of the factors that shape the feasibility
of these and other potentially novel raw materials to be achieved by genetic
engineering.
II. GENETIC ENGINEERING OF PLANTS
The chemical composition of vegetable oils is a highly heritable trait. For example,
year to year, soybean oil is a reliably constant raw material for the food industry.
Not only is the high lauric acid content of coconut oil characteristic of coconut oil,
but one does not find an occasional crop year in which soybean oil has lauric acid,
or in which coconut oil is lacking lauric acid. These basic chemical compositions
Copyright 2002 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. All Rights Reserved.