Patent ID: 8298797

Claim:
A method for the production of at least one polyunsaturated fatty acid selected from the group consisting of eicosadienoic acid and eicosatrienoic acid comprising: a) providing a transformed microbial host cell comprising: (i) a recombinant nucleotide molecule encoding a polypeptide having delta-9 elongase activity, wherein the polypeptide has at least 90% amino acid identity, based on the Clustal V method of alignment, when compared to the amino acid sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO:13 or SEQ ID NO:14; and (ii) a source of a substrate polyunsaturated fatty acid selected from the group consisting of linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid; b) growing the transformed microbial host cell of step (a) under conditions wherein linoleic acid is converted to eicosadienoic acid and alpha-linolenic acid is converted to eicosatrienoic acid; and c) optionally recovering the eicosadienoic acid and/or eicosatrienoic acid of step (b).