Construction for Δ-12 Fatty Acid Desaturase (FAD2) Silencing to Improve Oil Quality of Jatropha curcas Linn

The predominant fatty acids of jatropha oil are oleic acid (42.02%), linoleic acid (35.38%), palmitic acid (14.54%), and stearic acid (6.3%). Ratio of fatty acids content of jatropha oil, especially for oleic acid (42.02%) compare to linoleic acid (35.38%) is approximately equal. The oxidation stability of jatropha oil showed that methyl oleate is around 2.79 h and methyl linoleate is 0.94 h. Therefore, the presence of methyl linoleate will decrease the value oxidation stability of jatropha oil. The objective of the research was to modify fatty acid composition, especially to increase oleic acid and to reduce linoleic acid content of jatropha oil. To achieve the objective construction of transformation vectors for Δ 12 fatty acid desaturase FAD2 gene silencing was designed. In two transformation vectors, FAD2 gene fragment was constructed in inverted repeat (IR) and intron-spliced inverted repeat (ISIR) orientations to generate hair-pin RNAs (hpRNA).