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Abstract: Transitioning to renewable fuel oils is essential for replacing fossil fuels, promoting environmental sustainability and improving human health. Bioengineering offers promising opportunities to alter agricultural crop oil characteristics, enabling the production of oils that are tailored to future fuel requirements. Brassica carinata (A. Braun.), a non-food oilseed, stands out as a strong candidate feedstock for renewable fuel production due to its adaptability and potential for cultivation on marginal lands. This project focused on developing B. carinata as a renewable biofuel crop by studying and optimizing its oil properties through two main approaches. The first approach involved evaluating the natural variation in oil content and quality across diverse B. carinata lines and double haploid populations grown in field and pot trials. The second approach employed crop bioengineering techniques to modify fatty acid profiles by introducing genes that alter fatty acid chain length, supported by the development of an optimized plant transformation protocol. Given B. carinata’s adaptability to marginal lands and potential for sustainable oil production, this research aims to explore B. carinata genetic diversity and enhance the suitability of this crop as a biodiesel feedstock towards addressing global energy and environmental challenges.

Biography: Ebtihal is a PhD candidate at the Australian National University (ANU) in the Division of Plant Sciences. Ebtihal started her doctoral studies in the latter half of 2022, and her project activities included collaboration with NSW DPI and Nufarm with support from the ARC Training Centre for Future Crops. Colleagues collaborating with Ebtihal through her PhD research include Julian Greenwood, Rosemary Birch, Xue-Rong Zhou, Harsh Raman, Caitlin Byrt, Spencer Whitney, Reshma Roy, Antonio Leonforte, Jason McAllister, Nelson Gororo and Anthony Millar. 

Ebithal’s research focuses on developing Brassica carinata as a biodiesel crop, investigating the genetic diversity of diverse B. carinata lines and double haploid populations for oil quantity and quality traits. She has also optimized a transformation protocol for B. carinata by adapting methods established for Brassica napus. Additionally, Ebtihal has produced a B. carinata line with a modified fatty acid composition that surpasses Brassica napus (the primary oilseed used in biodiesel production) in terms of fatty acid profile. Before commencing her PhD, Ebtihal earned a Master of Science in Horticulture from the University of Khartoum, Sudan and worked at the Agricultural Research Corporation within Sudan’s Ministry of Agriculture.