Transport and transcriptional regulation of oil production in plants

Abstract

Triacylglycerol (TAG) serves as an energy reservoir and phospholipids as build blocks of biomembrane to support plant life. They also provide human with foods and nutrients. Multi-compartmentalized biosynthesis, trafficking or cross-membrane transport of lipid intermediates or precursors and their regulatory mechanisms are not fully understood. Recent progress has aided our understanding of how fatty acids (FAs) and phospholipids are transported between the chloroplast, the cytoplasm, and the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), and how the ins and outs of lipids take place in the peroxisome and other organelles for lipid metabolism and function. In addition, information regarding the transcriptional regulation network associated with FA and TAG biosynthesis has been further enriched. Recent breakthroughs made in lipid transport and transcriptional regulation has provided significant insights into our comprehensive understanding of plant lipid biology. This review attempts to highlight the recent progress made on lipid synthesis, transport, degradation, and their regulatory mechanisms. Metabolic engineering, based on these knowledge-powered technologies for production of edible oils or biofuels, is reviewed. The biotechnological application of metabolic enzymes, transcription factors and transporters, for oil production and composition improvement, are discussed in a broad context in order to provide a fresh scenario for researchers and to guide future research and applications.

Keywords:

• Lipid metabolism
• triacylglycrol biosynthesis
• transcription factor
• transporter
• metabolic engineering

Acknowledgements

We are sorry to the authors of references that made great contributions to this review but are not cited due to length limitations.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Funding

The research was supported by the Major State Basic Research Development Program of China [973 Program, Grant 2013CB127001], and the Huazhong Agricultural University Scientific & Technological Self-innovation Foundation (2012RC007 and 2015PY226).