Plant-derived oils are widely used all over the world both for food and for industrial purposes. In recent years they have also attracted attention as raw materials for potential bio-fuels and bio-plastics that are friendly to the environment. Because of these, the demand for vegetable oils is expanding year by year. Researchers in Japan have succeeded in inducing the genes involved in oil synthesis in seeds to work for longer periods of time, thereby allowing them to accumulate more seed oil. Their results have been reported online in the Plant Biotechnology Journal on October 26, 2015.