Platform crops amenable to genetic engineering – a requirement for successful production of bio-industrial oils through genetic engineering

Plants producing industrial oils of high quality and low price will facilitate a switch to vegetable oil-based raw materials from the current petroleum-based in the chemical industry. Oils have qualities designed to meet the stringent requirements of the industry, thus it is necessary that they are kept separate from farming of food staples. It is therefore a sensible strategy to develop such production in oil crops dedicated for industrial production. Genes for the special features of the non-food industry oil are missing and must be brought to plants by genetic engineering to improve or develop new crops tailoring the industry's needs. This requires that the crop platforms designated for the industrial oil production will need to be transformable. This review provides an overview of potential non-food oil crops that could become production platforms for oil of industrial quality. It also gives a short state of the art regarding the transformation of these plants producing quality non-food oil.