Abstract
Lysophosphatidic acid acyltransferase (LPAT), which converts lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) to phosphatidic acid (PA), catalyzes the addition of fatty acyl moieties to the sn-2 position of the LPA glycerol backbone in triacylglycerol (TAG) biosynthesis. We recently reported the cloning and temporal-spatial expression of a peanut (Arachis hypogaea) AhLPAT2gene, showing that an increase in AhLPAT2 transcript levels was closely correlated with an increase in seed oil levels. However, the function of the enzyme encoded by the AhLPAT2 gene remains unclear. Here, we report that AhLPAT2 transcript levels were consistently higher in the seeds of a high-oil cultivar than in those of a low-oil cultivar across different seed developmental stages. Seed-specific overexpression of AhLPAT2 in Arabidopsis results in a higher percentage of oil in the seeds and greater-than-average seed weight in the transgenic plants compared with the wild-type plants, leading to a significant increase in total oil yield per plant. The total fatty acid (FA) content and the proportion of unsaturated FAs also increased. In the developing siliques of AhLPAT2-overexpressing plants, the expression levels of genes encoding crucial enzymes involved in de novo FA synthesis, acetyl-CoA subunit (AtBCCP2) and acyl carrier protein 1 (AtACP1) were elevated. AhLPAT2 overexpression also promoted the expression of several key genes related to TAG assembly, sucrose metabolism, and glycolysis. These results demonstrate that the expression of AhLPAT2 plays an important role in glycerolipid production in peanuts.
Highlights
Peanuts are one of the largest and most important edible oil-producing crops in the world, surpassed only by soybean and rapeseed in planting area during the last five years[1]; they are used to produce a large percentage of the vegetable oil of many countries
Especially between 40 and 60 DAF (Fig 1B), when the storage oil accumulated at its maximum rate [38, 52].Taken together with our previous data [33], AhLPAT2 is associated with seed oil accumulation
Our results indicate that peanut AhLPAT2 plays important roles in the seed oil accumulation pathway and provide clues to understanding of the molecular mechanisms controlling oil biosynthesis and storage in peanut seeds
Summary
Peanuts are one of the largest and most important edible oil-producing crops in the world, surpassed only by soybean and rapeseed in planting area during the last five years[1]; they are used to produce a large percentage of the vegetable oil of many countries. Peanut oil is of high nutritional value; it has high concentrations of unsaturated C18 fatty acids Peanut AhLPAT2 Increases Seed Lipid Content design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript
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