Patent ID: 7645604

Claim:
An isolated polynucleotide selected from the group consisting of: (a) an isolated nucleic acid sequence comprising a nucleotide sequence encoding a polypeptide having Δ9 elongase activity, wherein the polypeptide has at least 95% amino acid identity, based on the Clustal V method of alignment, when compared to an amino acid sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO:2 or SEQ ID NO:5; (b) an isolated nucleic acid sequence comprising a nucleotide sequence encoding a polypeptide having Δ9 elongase activity, wherein the nucleotide sequence has at least 95% sequence identity, based on the BLASTN method of alignment, when compared to a nucleotide sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO:1, SEQ ID NO:3, SEQ ID NO:4 or SEQ ID NO:6; (c) an isolated nucleic acid sequence comprising a nucleotide sequence encoding a polypeptide having Δ9 elongase activity, wherein the nucleotide sequence hybridizes with the nucleotide sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO:1, SEQ ID NO:3, SEQ ID NO:4 or SEQ ID NO:6 under the following stringent hybridization conditions: 0.1×SSC, 0.1% SDS, 65° C. and washed with 2×SSC, 0.1% SDS followed by 0.1×SSC, 0.1% SDS; or (d) a complement of the nucleotide sequence of (a), (b) or (c), wherein the complement and the nucleotide sequence consist of the same number of nucleotides and are 100% complementary.