March 3/Allexandria, Va./Targeted News Service -- Martek Biosciences, Columbia, Md., has been assigned a patent (7,897,392) developed by Craig A. Weaver, Boulder, Colo., Ross Zirkle, Longmont, Colo., and James G. Metz, Longmont, Colo., for "PUFA polyketide synthase systems and uses thereof."

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states, "Disclosed are the complete polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) polyketide synthase (PKS) systems from the bacterial microorganisms Shewanella japonica and Shewanella olleyana, and biologically active fragments and homologues thereof. More particularly, this invention relates to nucleic acids encoding such PUFA PKS systems, to proteins and domains thereof that comprise such PUFA PKS systems, to genetically modified organisms (plants and microorganisms) comprising such PUFA PKS systems, and to methods of making and using the PUFA PKS systems disclosed herein. This invention also relates to genetically modified plants and microorganisms and methods to efficiently produce lipids enriched in various polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) as well as other bioactive molecules by manipulation of a PUFA polyketide synthase (PKS) system."

The patent application was filed on July 23, 2007 (11/781,875). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=18&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=20110301.PD.&s2=%28MD.ASST.%29&OS=ISD/03/01/2011+AND+AS/MD&RS=ISD/03/01/2011+AND+AS/MD

From the March 4, 2011, Prepared Foods' Daily News
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