Fatty Acid Composition in Developing High Saturated Sunflower (Helianthus annuus) Seeds: Maturation Changes and Temperature Effect

Developing seeds from sunflower high palmitic acid mutants (CAS-5 and CAS-12) showed high levels of palmitic acid at early stages. The stearic acid content of high stearic mutants (CAS-3, CAS-4, and CAS-8) increased from low or medium initial values until it reached the maximum level at 16 days after flowering. All mutant lines increased palmitic acid content at high growth temperature with CAS-5 having the maximum increase (5.7%). At the same time, all but CAS-3 increased stearic acid content at low temperature with CAS-8 showing the maximum increase (9.6%). The unsaturation level in the mutants had a different linoleic/oleic ratio than the control line, but always with a ratio higher than 1 at low temperature. Only mutant CAS-5 maintained a similar desaturation level at any temperature, being 3.5−11 times higher than that of the other lines. The temperature affects the polar lipids in a similar way.