Expression of fatty acid and lipid biosynthetic genes

An assessment of the transcript abundance of several fatty acid and lipid biosynthetic genes has been made. Total RNA was extracted from embryos at different stages of development and mRNA was analysed by quantitative Northern blots and used to probe cDNA arrays. Central fatty acid synthase components were present at different steady-state levels, but at constant ratios throughout development; ancillary components were generally expressed at higher levels, but at constant ratios over the period of maximum fatty acid biosynthesis.