OIL CONTENT AND FATTY-ACID COMPOSITION OF SEED OF VARIOUS ECOTYPES OFARABIDOPSIS-THALIANA - A SEARCH FOR USEFUL GENETIC-VARIANTS

Of the many ecotypes of Arabidopsis thaliana, only the Col-O (Heynh. c v. Columbia) strain has been largely used for genetic and molecular bi ological studies, previous analysis of this strain having showed that its seed contains about 43% oil. We analysed ten ecotypes of A. thalia na for oil content and fatty acid composition. Oil content of all the varieties of A. thaliana was higher than their carbohydrate or protein content, confirming that A. thaliana (a member of the Crucifer family ) is truly an oil seed plant. Fatty acid composition of seed lipid of A. thaliana strains is very similar to that of other Crucifer agronomi c oil seeds (e.g. rape and mustard) with a few important exceptions. T his analysis led to identification of a 'zero-erucic' type and high pa lmitate type seeds among the available A. thaliana ecotypes.