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ARS Home » Southeast Area » New Orleans, Louisiana » Southern Regional Research Center » Commodity Utilization Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #418924
Research Project: Development of Novel Cottonseed Products and Processes

Location: Commodity Utilization Research

Title: Towards rational control of seed oil composition: dissecting cellular organization and flux control of lipid metabolic pathways

Author
item BATES, PHILLP - WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY
item SHOCKEY, JAY

Submitted to: Plant Physiology
Publication Type: Review Article
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/18/2024
Publication Date: 12/8/2024
Citation: Bates, P.D., Shockey, J.M. 2024. Towards rational control of seed oil composition: dissecting cellular organization and flux control of lipid metabolic pathways. Plant Physiology. 197(2). Article kiae658. https://doi.org/10.1093/plphys/kiae658.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/plphys/kiae658

Interpretive Summary: Unlike most lipids in mammals, plant lipids are a unique study in how differently storage lipids (in this case, vegetable oils) differ in the main chemical composition compared to the lipids that make up the bulk of cell membranes. Cell membrane lipid composition in nearly interchangeable across the entire family of plants, whereas some plants produce seed oils with high levels of unusual fatty acids that impart very different physical and chemical properties to the oils that contain them. Decades of research has identified most of the enzymes that produced the fatty acids and oils. But most of the details regarding how, when, and where in the cells these enzymes are produced and packaged together to accomplish these two distinctly different lipid synthesis pathways remains to be discovered. This review summarizes the recent published results and new insights and offers some ideas for future directions that may help to answer these questions.

Technical Abstract: Plant lipids represent a fascinating field of scientific study, in part due to a stark dichotomy in the limited fatty acid (FA) composition of cellular membrane lipids versus the huge diversity of FAs that can accumulate in triacylglycerols (TAGs), the main component of seed storage oils. With few exceptions, the strict chemical, structural, and biophysical roles imposed on membrane lipids since the dawn of life has constrained their FA composition to predominantly lengths of 16-18 carbons and containing 0-3 methylene-interrupted carbon-carbon double bonds in cis-configuration. However, over 450 “unusual” FA structures can be found in seed oils of different plants, and we are just beginning to understand the metabolic mechanisms required to produce and maintain this dichotomy.