Patent

1. A Brassica napus plant, cell, seed or progeny of said plant, comprising a BnFAD2-A1, a BnFAD2-A2, a BnFAD2-C1 and a BnFAD2-C2 gene, wherein said plant comprises knock-out fad2 alleles of the BnFAD2-A1 and of the BnFAD2-C2 genes, and wherein the fad2 alleles of said BnFAD2-C1 gene encode a functional BnFAD2-C1 protein.

2. The Brassica napus plant, cell, seed or progeny of said plant, according to claim 1 , wherein the fad2 alleles of said BnFAD2-C1 gene are wild-type alleles.

3. The Brassica napus plant, cell, seed or progeny of said plant, according to claim 2 , wherein the fad2 alleles of the BnFAD2-A2 gene are knock-out fad2 alleles.

4. The Brassica napus plant, cell, seed or progeny of said plant, according to claim 1 , wherein said knock-out fad2 allele of said BnFAD2-A1 gene is a fad2 allele encoding a protein in which the His at position 109 of SEQ ID NO: 6 is substituted with another amino acid, and wherein said knock-out fad2 allele of said BnFAD2-C2 allele is a fad2 allele comprising a stop codon mutation in the codon encoding the Trp at position 190 of SEQ ID NO: 15.

5. The Brassica napus plant, cell, seed or progeny of said plant, according to claim 4 , which is derived or obtained from:

a. seed comprising HIOL101 having been deposited at NCIMB under accession number NCIMB 42376; and

b. seed comprising HIOL109 having been deposited at NCIMB under accession number NCIMB 42375.

6. The Brassica napus plant, cell, seed or progeny of said plant, according to claim 1 which is homozygous for any one of the knock-out fad2 alleles.

7. The Brassica napus plant, cell, seed or progeny of said plant, according to claim 1 , said plant further comprising at least a knock-out fad3 allele of at least one Brassica napus FAD3 gene.

8. The Brassica napus plant, cell, seed or progeny of said plant, according to claim 7 , said plant further comprising knock-out fad3 alleles of Brassica napus FAD3 genes FAD3-A1, FAD3-A2, FAD3-A3, FAD3-C1 and FAD3-C2.

9. The Brassica napus plant, cell, seed or progeny of said plant, according to claim 7 , wherein said at least one Brassica napus FAD3 gene is:

a. a FAD3-A1 gene comprising a sequence having at least 90% sequence identity to the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 37, or having a cDNA sequence having at least 90% sequence identity to the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 39, or encoding a protein having at least 90% sequence identity to the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 38;

b. a FAD3-A2 gene comprising a sequence having at least 90% sequence identity to the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 40, or having a cDNA sequence having at least 90% sequence identity to the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 42, or encoding a protein having at least 90% sequence identity to the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 41;

c. a FAD3-A3 gene comprising a sequence having at least 90% sequence identity to the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 43, or having a cDNA sequence having at least 90% sequence identity to the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 45, or encoding a protein having at least 90% sequence identity to the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 44;

d. a FAD3-C1 gene comprising a sequence having at least 90% sequence identity to the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 46, or having a cDNA sequence having at least 90% sequence identity to the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 48, or encoding a protein having at least 90% sequence identity to the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 47; or

e. a FAD3-C2 gene comprising a sequence having at least 90% sequence identity to the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 49, or having a cDNA sequence having at least 90% sequence identity to the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 51, or encoding a protein having at least 90% sequence identity to the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 50.

10. The Brassica napus plant, cell, seed or progeny of said plant, according to claim 1 , which has increased levels of C18:1 in the seed oil and which maintains normal agronomic development when compared to a control plant.

11. The Brassica napus plant, cell, seed or progeny of said plant, according to claim 7 , which has increased levels of C18:1 and decreased levels of C18:3 in the seed oil when compared to a control plant.

12. A method for increasing the levels of C18:1 in seed oil while maintaining normal agronomic development, said method comprising introducing a knock-out fad2 allele of a BnFAD2-A1 gene and a knock-out fad2 allele of a BnFAD2-C2 gene into a Brassica napus plant, and selecting a Brassica napus plant comprising said knock-out fad2 allele of said BnFAD2-A1 gene, and said knock-out fad2 allele of said BnFAD2-C2 gene, and wherein said plant further contains a BnFAD2-C1 gene of which the fad2 alleles of said BnFAD2-C1 gene encode a functional BnFAD2-C1 protein, thereby increasing the levels of C18:1 in seed oil while maintaining normal agronomic development in a Brassica napus plant when compared to a control plant.

13. The method according to claim 12 for increasing the levels of C18:1 and decreasing the levels of C18:3 in seed oil while maintaining normal agronomic development, said method further comprising introducing a knock-out fad3 allele of a FAD3-A1 gene, a knock-out fad3 allele of a FAD3-A2 gene, a knock-out fad3 allele of a FAD3-A3 gene, a knock-out fad3 allele of a FAD3-C1 gene, and a knock-out fad3 allele of a FAD3-C2 gene, into a Brassica napus plant, and selecting a Brassica napus plant comprising said knock-out fad3 allele of said FAD3-A1 gene, said knock-out fad3 allele of said FAD3-A2 gene, said knock-out fad3 allele of said FAD3-A3 gene, said knock-out fad3 allele of said FAD3-C1 gene, and said knock-out fad3 allele of said FAD3-C2 gene, thereby increasing the levels of C18:1 and decreasing the levels of C18:3 in seed oil while maintaining normal agronomic development in a Brassica napus plant when compared to a control plant.

14. A method for producing oil, comprising harvesting the seed according to claim 1 and extracting the oil from said seed.

15. A method of producing food, feed, or an industrial product comprising preparing the food, feed or industrial product from the plant, cell, seed or progeny of said plant according to claim 1 .

16. A method to produce a Brassica napus plant comprising an increased level of C18:1 in the seed oil and which maintains normal agronomic development compared to a control plant, said method comprising sowing seeds according to claim 1 and growing plants from said seeds.