中国生物工程杂志

N-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) is an important component of the fatty acid. It is necessary to maintain the appropriate proportion of n-3 PUFAs physiological. However most animals have to obtain n-3 PUFAs from diet,because they can not synthesize them by themselves.Fat-1 gene, translating into ω-3 PUFA desaturase, can convert PUFAs from n-6 to n3 form. The main functions of n-3 PUFAs, and the applications and potential of the fat-1 in n-3 PUFAs research are reviewed in this paper.