**13. Fatty acid modification in safflower**

Oil seed crops like safflower are primarily grown for their high-quality edible oil. All safflower seeds contain fatty acids including linoleic acid, stearic acid, and palmitic acid. Safflower lines had improved fatty acid compositions comprising reduced palmitic acid, reduced stearic acid, and high to very high linoleic and oleic acids with reduced saturated fatty acids such as palmitic and stearic acids [96]. In research published by [97], the al allele has been linked to a defective fatty acid desaturase (FAD2-1) (fatty acid desaturase) enzyme in microsomes. These vegetable oils contain a higher level of oleic acid and are more nutritionally beneficial [98, 99]. Saffola 517, a high-oleic-oil type, and Saffola 555, a linoleic-oil variant, were both introduced to Australia from the United States. Traditional breeding and genetic modification were used to create HO cultivars. Biodiesel, lubricants, and hydraulic oils are all items that require strong oxidative stability; therefore HO vegetable oils with high oxidative stability have non-food applications or prospective industrial usage [100]. GLA is a crucial fatty acid needed by the body, derived from linoleic acid by means of delta-6-desaturase in the endoplasmic reticulum. The oil content, viability, or fitness of high GLA lines is invariable and heritable across generations. SonovaTM 400, a nutritional supplement containing GLA extracted from GM safflower, has received FDA approval for use. It has been shown in clinical trials that GLA can be useful to treat eczema and various types of cancer [85]. The high level of oleic acid (75–85%) found in some safflower cultivars is ideal for food use but not for industrial use due to the extremely high level of purity required. Potential industrial applications for high oxidative stability HO vegetable oils include biodiesel, lubricants, hydraulic oils, and oleo chemical applications. The oxidative stability of oil extracted from super high oleic (SHO) safflower was significantly improved when compared to the high oleic acid cultivar S317, which contained over 93% and 75.4% oleic acid, respectively. The seed-specific RNAisilencing of the FATB and FAD2.2 genes, which are responsible for the release of saturated medium-chain fatty acids and the desaturation of oleic acid to linoleic acid, respectively, was used to create the SHO safflower [101]. Bio fortification of safflower, an oil seed crop was genetically modified to improve the ALA content. In safflower, accumulation of Linoleic acid is higher which an immediate precursor of ALA. Hence, FAD3 isolated from *A. thaliana* driven under seed specific promoter isolated from *Glycine max* is transformed through agrobacterium mediated transformation to increase the ALA content. The vector used for cloning is pCAM-BIA2300. The transformed seeds contained about 1.34–18.2 mg of ALA per gram dry weight of the seeds. Thus, it proves that fatty acid desaturase can increase the accumulation of ALA content in plants [102].
