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Sten Stymne — CBC/RBC Seminar

“Four Decades of Seed Oil Biochemistry—What Have We Learned and What is Left to Discover”

Date:
Time:
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Beadle Center Room: E103
1901 Vine St
Lincoln NE 68503
Additional Info: BEAD
Contact:
Hannah Kahler, 402-472-3173, hannah.kahler@unl.edu
Sten Stymne is presently professor at Department of Plant Breeding at the Swedish University of Agriculture in Alnarp, in the South of Sweden. His research activities has since his Ph.D. studies started 1976 concerned plant lipid biochemistry and genetics and in particular biosynthesis of vegetable oils and he is regarded as one of the leading scientists in this area during the last 30 years. A pathway of triacylglycerol biosynthesis in plants which was proposed 1987 by Stymne and Stobart is now a part of most biochemical text books. More recently, his research has concerned the production of unusual fatty acids in plants and their channeling to triacylglycerols. The applied goal of his research is to develop high added value oils for industrial uses in transgenic oil crops.

Among his major scientific achievements can be mentioned: The first to show that polyunsaturated fatty acids are produced on phospholipids and then channeled to triacylglycerols. Demonstration that the reverse reaction of the lysophosphatidylcholine acyltransferase catalyses the transfer of polyunsaturated fatty acids from the phospholipids into the acyl-CoA pool for further incorporation into triacylglycerols. Further, his research has revealed the biochemical natures of the enzymes producing gamma-linolenic acid, hydroxylated, expoxidated and acetylenic fatty acids that accumulate in some oil seeds and mosses. His research group was the first in cloning genes encoding enzymes producing acetylenic fatty acids and the first in cloning a fatty acid epoxygenase of the non-heme type. They also identified a novel class of enzymes (PDAT) producing triacylglycerols from phospholipids and diacylglycerols in yeast and plants and cloned the encoding genes. They were the first in cloning a gene encoding a plant sterol ester synthesizing enzyme and in purifying low molecular weight phospholipases in plants and cloning their encoding genes.

Stymne took the initiative and was the coordinator of the ICON project (2007-2013), an EU Frame work involving 24 partners all over the world. It was the world’s largest public funded international plant biotechnology project and served as a demonstration for the industry and society that plant biotechnology can be used to produce valuable industrial products in a safe and economic way.

Stymne is founder and main owner of the biotech company Scandinavian Biotechnology Research AB (ScanBiRes AB) and is chairman of the Board and its Chief Executive Officer (1999-2001, 2007-).

Stymne is an enthusiastic promoter of plant biotechnology to generate industrial use crops. He has often had seminars for farmers, schools and political organisations and has participated on numerous occasions in debates about plant biotechnology in radio, TV and newspapers.

Additional Public Info:
Please note this seminar is being held in E103 Beadle Center.

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