Overexpression of Type 1 and 2 Diacylglycerol Acyltransferase Genes (JcDGAT1 and JcDGAT2) Enhances Oil Production in the Woody Perennial Biofuel Plant Jatropha curcas

Plants

Chuan-Jia Xu¹  Huiying He¹  Qiantang Fu¹  Yan-Bin Tao¹  Zeng-Fu Xu¹  Ronghua Xu²  Tian-Tian Zhang³ 

[1] CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Plant Resources and Sustainable Use, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, The Innovative Academy of Seed Design, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Mengla 666303, China;College of Life and Health Sciences, Anhui Science and Technology University, Fengyang 233100, China;School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230027, China;

关键词: J. curcas;    oil content;    TAG;    fatty acid;    seed kernels;    leaves;   

DOI  :  10.3390/plants10040699

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Diacylglycerol acyltransferase (DGAT) is the only enzyme that catalyzes the acyl-CoA-dependent acylation of sn-1, 2-diacylglycerol (DAG) to form triacylglycerol (TAG). The two main types of DGAT enzymes in the woody perennial biofuel plant Jatropha curcas, JcDGAT1 and JcDGAT2, were previously characterized only in heterologous systems. In this study, we investigated the functions of JcDGAT1 and JcDGAT2 in J. curcas.JcDGAT1 and JcDGAT2 were found to be predominantly expressed during the late stages of J. curcas seed development, in which large amounts of oil accumulated. As expected, overexpression of JcDGAT1 or JcDGAT2 under the control of the CaMV35S promoter gave rise to an increase in seed kernel oil production, reaching a content of 53.7% and 55.7% of the seed kernel dry weight, respectively, which were respectively 25% and 29.6% higher than that of control plants. The increase in seed oil content was accompanied by decreases in the contents of protein and soluble sugars in the seeds. Simultaneously, there was a two- to four-fold higher leaf TAG content in transgenic plants than in control plants. Moreover, by analysis of the fatty acid (FA) profiles, we found that JcDGAT1 and JcDGAT2 had the same substrate specificity with preferences for C18:2 in seed TAGs, and C16:0, C18:0, and C18:1 in leaf TAGs. Therefore, our study confirms the important role of JcDGAT1 and JcDGAT2 in regulating oil production in J. curcas.

【 授权许可】

Unknown