Some aspects of this invention provide engineered microbes for oil production. Methods for microbe engineering and for use of engineered microbes are also provided herein. In some embodiments, microbes are provided that are engineered to modulate a combination of rate-controlling steps of lipid synthesis, for example, a combination of a step generating metabolites, acetyl-CoA, ATP or NADPH for lipid synthesis (a push step), and a step sequestering a product or an intermediate of a lipid synthesis pathway that mediates feedback inhibition of lipid synthesis (a pull step). Such push-and-pull engineered microbes exhibit greatly enhanced conversion yields and TAG synthesis and storage properties.

Provided are an acid-tolerant yeast cell, a method of producing an organic acid by using the yeast cell, and a method of producing the yeast cell resistant to acid.

The subject invention provides "no sat" canola oil. The subject invention also provides seeds that can be used to produce such oils. Plants that produce these seeds are also included within the subject invention. All of this was surprisingly achieved by using a delta-9 desaturase gene in canola. This technology can be applied to other plants as disclosed herein. Oils of the subject invention have particularly advantageous characteristics and fatty acid profiles, which were not heretofore attained. The subject invention still further provides a plant-optimized delta-9 desaturase gene. The subject invention still further provides a plant-optimized delta-9 desaturase gene. In some preferred embodiments, a preferred plant comprises at least two copies of a delta-9 desaturase gene of the subject invention. Seeds produced by such plants surprisingly do not exhibit effects of gene silencing but rather have further surprising reductions in levels of total saturates.

The present invention concerns methods and reagents useful in modulating placental growth factor (e.g., PGF-1 or PIGF-1, PGF-2 or PIGF-2, and/or PGF-3 or PIGF-3) gene expression in a variety of applications, including use in therapeutic, diagnostic, target validation, and genomic discovery applications. Specifically, the invention relates to small nucleic acid molecules, such as short interfering nucleic acid (siNA), short interfering RNA (siRNA), double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), micro-RNA (miRNA), and short hairpin RNA (shRNA) molecules capable of mediating RNA interference (RNAi) against PGF gene expression and/or activity. The small nucleic acid molecules are useful in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, proliferative diseases, and any other disease or condition that responds to modulation of PGF expression or activity.

Die vorliegende Erfindung betrifft ein Verfahren zur Herstellung von genetisch modifizierten (rekombinanten) Protisten ohne den Einsatz von Negativselektionsmarkern bei welchem eine auxotrophe Mutante der Protisten hergestellt wird, diese Mutante anschliessend mit rekombinanter DNA, die mindestens ein Gen zur Komplementierung der entsprechenden Auxotrophie enthält, transformiert wird und schließlich die resultierenden rekombinanten Protisten auf einem Minimalmedium, das nur entsprechend komplementierten Protisten das Wachstum ermöglicht, selektioniert werden. Ferner betrifft die vorliegende Erfindung ein effizientes Verfahren zur Herstellung von Proteinen mittels dergestalt modifizierter Protisten, wobei das Gen für das herzustellende Protein an das Markergen gekoppelt wird.