Project Number: 6435-41000-087-03
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Sep 01, 2005
End Date: Aug 31, 2007

Objective:
The objective of this cooperative research project is to generate the scientific basis for the production of industrially important oils in plants that are cost-competitive with petroleum-derived oils and co-products. Targeted benefits include developing international cooperation on oilseed engineering, thus creating a scientific/technical infrastructure for international sharing of breakthroughs on production of industrial oils in plants, crop improvements and processing, optimal analytical tools, gene libraries and biotechnology science and policy.

Approach:
Continue independent research and develop new areas of potential research breakthroughs related to oilseed engineering. Specifically, significant success is targeted for production of (1) hydroxylated fatty acids, (2) conjugated fatty acids, and (3) waxes in the seeds of plants. At the same time, work toward establishing an international framework whereby individual scientific projects in oilseed engineering are part of a larger ¿flagship¿ program, where integration between international groups leads to successful application of these scientific results toward commercialization and public acceptance.