Plant Lipid Biosynthesis - Fundamentals and Agricultural Applications

Hardback  392 pp, 61 diags, 2 illus, 24 tabs  ISBN 0521620740      £75.00

As one of the major constituents of plants, lipids have received considerable attention from plant biochemists. Interest has recently intensified and broadened following exciting new discoveries of particular relevance to industry, ranging from the elucidation of new biosynthetic pathways sensitive to herbicide action to the successful genetic manipulation of the quality of food oils. This volume brings together contributions from those working on plant lipid biosynthesis, both with respect to the fundamentals of the process and also on more specifically applied aspects. Together, these contributions provide an up-to-date review of the most exciting recent advances which illustrate that the fundamental and applied approaches are complementary and synergistic.

Preface; 1. What€s so special about plant lipids? J. Harwood; 2. Biotin-dependent carboxylases and their biotinylation in higher plants C. Alban and R. Douce; 3. Down-regulation of lipid synthesis in plants implies higher orders of regulation in fatty acid biosynthesis A. White, K. Elborough, S. Hanley, A. Slabas; 4. Molecular structure of a reductase component of fatty acid synthase C. Baldock, J. Rafferty, A. Stuitje and D. Rice; 5. Fatty acid desaturases: structure, mechanism and regulation D. Murphy and P. Piffanelli; 6. Altering the fatty acid composition of vegetable oils J. Browse, J. Spychalla, J. Okuley and J. Lightner; 7. Engineering frost-resistance in plants by genetic manipulation P. Quinn; 8. Recent advances in plant fatty acid elongation F. Domergue, J.-J. Bessoule, P. Moreau, R. Lessire and C. Cassagne; 9. Triacylglycerol biosynthesis A. Stobart, S. Stymne, P. Shewry and J. Napier; 10. Molecular biology of acyltransferases involved in glycerolipid synthesis M. Frentzen and F. Wolter; 11. Production of specialised oils for industry A. Kinney; 12. Manipulating seed oils for polyunsaturated fatty acid content D. Knutson and V. Knauf; 13. Environmental effects on plant lipid biochemistry J. Harwood; 14. The future: industry requirements from advances in plant lipid research S. Bright and T. Hawkes; Index.