Altered Fatty Acids Composition in Brassica Seed Oil - In the past, specialized fatty acid composition in the seed oil, desired for edible and industrial purposes, has been achieved by conventional plant breeding or by mutagenesis programmes. Following are some examples:
(i) removal of erucic acid from rape-seed oil to create 'canola';
(ii) reduction in linolenic acid content in flax;
(iii) increase in stearate content (six times that in wild type) in safflower (upto 12% stearate) and soybean (upto 30% stearate).

Tissue specific antisense RNA expression has recently been used for reducing 'stearoyl-ACP desaturase' (ACP = acyl carrier protein) activity in seeds; leading to alteration in the ratio of saturated to unsaturated fatty acids.