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Title: A transgene design for enhancing oil content in Arabidopsis and Camelina seeds

Abstract

Background: Increasing the oil yield is a major objective for oilseed crop improvement. Oil biosynthesis and accumulation are influenced by multiple genes involved in embryo and seed development. The leafy cotyledon1 (LEC1) is a master regulator of embryo development that also enhances the expression of genes involved in fatty acid biosynthesis. We speculated that seed oil could be increased by targeted overexpression of a master regulating transcription factor for oil biosynthesis, using a downstream promoter for a gene in the oil biosynthesis pathway. To verify the effect of such a combination on seed oil content, we made constructs with maize (Zea mays) ZmLEC1 driven by serine carboxypeptidase-like (SCPL17) and acyl carrier protein (ACP5) promoters, respectively, for expression in transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana and Camelina sativa. Results: Agrobacterium-mediated transformation successfully generated Arabidopsis and Camelina lines that overexpressed ZmLEC1 under the control of a seed-specific promoter. This overexpression does not appear to be detrimental to seed vigor under laboratory conditions and did not cause observable abnormal growth phenotypes throughout the life cycle of the plants. Overexpression of ZmLEC1 increased the oil content in mature seeds by more than 20% in Arabidopsis and 26% in Camelina. In conclusion: The findings suggested that the maizemore » master regulator, ZmLEC1, driven by a downstream seed-specific promoter, can be used to increase oil production in Arabidopsis and Camelina and might be a promising target for increasing oil yield in oilseed crops.0« less

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5]; ORCiD logo [6]
  1. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Joint BioEnergy Inst. and Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division; Nankai Univ., Tianjin (China). College of Life Science
  2. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Joint BioEnergy Inst. and Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division; Northeast Forestry Univ., Harbin (United States). College of Life Science
  3. US Dept. of Agriculture (USDA)., Albany, CA (United States). Western Regional Research Center, Agricultural Research Service
  4. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Joint BioEnergy Inst. and Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division
  5. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Joint BioEnergy Inst. and Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division; Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Plant and Microbial Biology
  6. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Joint BioEnergy Inst. and Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division; Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Plant and Microbial Biology
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); China Scholarship Council
OSTI Identifier:
1433120
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-05CH11231
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Biotechnology for Biofuels
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 11; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 1754-6834
Publisher:
BioMed Central
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES; ZmLEC1; Master regulator; Transcription factor; Oil content; SCPL17; ACP5

Citation Formats

Zhu, Yerong, Xie, Linan, Chen, Grace Q., Lee, Mi Yeon, Loque, Dominique, and Scheller, Henrik Vibe. A transgene design for enhancing oil content in Arabidopsis and Camelina seeds. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1186/s13068-018-1049-4.
Zhu, Yerong, Xie, Linan, Chen, Grace Q., Lee, Mi Yeon, Loque, Dominique, & Scheller, Henrik Vibe. A transgene design for enhancing oil content in Arabidopsis and Camelina seeds. United States. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13068-018-1049-4
Zhu, Yerong, Xie, Linan, Chen, Grace Q., Lee, Mi Yeon, Loque, Dominique, and Scheller, Henrik Vibe. Wed . "A transgene design for enhancing oil content in Arabidopsis and Camelina seeds". United States. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13068-018-1049-4. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1433120.
@article{osti_1433120,
title = {A transgene design for enhancing oil content in Arabidopsis and Camelina seeds},
author = {Zhu, Yerong and Xie, Linan and Chen, Grace Q. and Lee, Mi Yeon and Loque, Dominique and Scheller, Henrik Vibe},
abstractNote = {Background: Increasing the oil yield is a major objective for oilseed crop improvement. Oil biosynthesis and accumulation are influenced by multiple genes involved in embryo and seed development. The leafy cotyledon1 (LEC1) is a master regulator of embryo development that also enhances the expression of genes involved in fatty acid biosynthesis. We speculated that seed oil could be increased by targeted overexpression of a master regulating transcription factor for oil biosynthesis, using a downstream promoter for a gene in the oil biosynthesis pathway. To verify the effect of such a combination on seed oil content, we made constructs with maize (Zea mays) ZmLEC1 driven by serine carboxypeptidase-like (SCPL17) and acyl carrier protein (ACP5) promoters, respectively, for expression in transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana and Camelina sativa. Results: Agrobacterium-mediated transformation successfully generated Arabidopsis and Camelina lines that overexpressed ZmLEC1 under the control of a seed-specific promoter. This overexpression does not appear to be detrimental to seed vigor under laboratory conditions and did not cause observable abnormal growth phenotypes throughout the life cycle of the plants. Overexpression of ZmLEC1 increased the oil content in mature seeds by more than 20% in Arabidopsis and 26% in Camelina. In conclusion: The findings suggested that the maize master regulator, ZmLEC1, driven by a downstream seed-specific promoter, can be used to increase oil production in Arabidopsis and Camelina and might be a promising target for increasing oil yield in oilseed crops.0},
doi = {10.1186/s13068-018-1049-4},
journal = {Biotechnology for Biofuels},
number = 1,
volume = 11,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Feb 21 00:00:00 EST 2018},
month = {Wed Feb 21 00:00:00 EST 2018}
}

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Overexpression of Arabidopsis WRI1 enhanced seed mass and storage oil content in Camelina sativa
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Transcription factors for predictive plant metabolic engineering: are we there yet?
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Enhanced Seed Oil Production in Canola by Conditional Expression of Brassica napus LEAFY COTYLEDON1 and LEC1-LIKE in Developing Seeds
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journal, April 2014

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  • Plant Physiology, Vol. 165, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1104/pp.114.236430

Seed-Specific Over-Expression of an Arabidopsis cDNA Encoding a Diacylglycerol Acyltransferase Enhances Seed Oil Content and Seed Weight
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  • Plant Physiology, Vol. 126, Issue 2
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Suppression of the SUGAR-DEPENDENT1 triacylglycerol lipase family during seed development enhances oil yield in oilseed rape ( Brassica napus L.)
journal, November 2012

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Engineering temporal accumulation of a low recalcitrance polysaccharide leads to increased C6 sugar content in plant cell walls
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  • Plant Biotechnology Journal, Vol. 13, Issue 7
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Works referencing / citing this record:

Mapping quantitative trait loci for seed traits in Camelina sativa
journal, June 2019


Enhancing micro RNA 167A expression in seed decreases the α‐linolenic acid content and increases seed size in Camelina sativa
journal, February 2019

  • Na, GunNam; Mu, Xiaopeng; Grabowski, Paul
  • The Plant Journal, Vol. 98, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1111/tpj.14223

Transcriptome analysis of rubber biosynthesis in guayule (Parthenium argentatum gray)
journal, February 2019


WRINKLED1, a “Master Regulator” in Transcriptional Control of Plant Oil Biosynthesis
journal, July 2019