Abstract:The plant fatty acids are known to play a vital physiological role and
to possess highly edible and industrial value. Pathways of fatty acid biosynthesis are complicated. A series of enzymes including acetyl_CoA carboxylase, fatty acid synthetase, fatty acid desaturase, and fatty acid elongase are involved. Recently, studies on pathways of fatty acid biosynthesis had made a great progress. Several related genes had been cloned. The mechanism of fatty acid synthesis had preliminarily been demonstrated. Moreover, manipulation of fatty acid biosynthesis using gene engineering had also been studied. This paper reviewed the recent progress of studies on biosynthesis and gene engineering of saturated fatty acids, unsaturated fatty acids, and very long chain fatty acids in plant.