Seed oils are used as edible oils and increasingly also for industrial applications. Although high-oleic seed oil is preferred for industrial use, most seed oil is high in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and low in monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) such as oleic acid. Oil from Camelina, an emerging oilseed crop with a high seed oil content and resistance to environmental stress, contains 60% PUFAs and 30% MUFAs. Hexaploid Camelina carries three homoeologs of FAD2, encoding fatty acid desaturase 2 (FAD2), which is responsible for the synthesis of linoleic acid from oleic acid. In this study, to increase the MUFA contents of Camelina seed oil, we generated CsFAD2 knockout plants via CRISPR-Cas9-mediated gene editing using the pRedU6fad2EcCas9 vector containing DsRed as a selection marker, the U6 promoter to drive a single guide RNA (sgRNA) covering the common region of the three CsFAD2 homoeologs, and an egg-cell-specific promoter to drive Cas9 expression. We analyzed CsFAD2 homoeolog-specific sequences by PCR using genomic DNA from transformed Camelina leaves. Knockout of all three pairs of FAD2 homoeologs led to a stunted bushy phenotype, but greatly enhanced MUFA levels (by 80%) in seeds. However, transformants with two pairs of CsFAD2 homoeologs knocked out but the other pair wild-type heterozygous showed normal growth and a seed MUFAs production increased up to 60%. These results provide a basis for the metabolic engineering of genes that affect growth in polyploid crops through genome editing.

Recent studies of chloroplast‐localized Sec14‐like protein (CPSFL1, also known as phosphatidylinositol transfer protein 7, PITP7) showed that CPSFL1 is necessary for photoautotropic growth and chloroplast vesicle formation in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). Here, we investigated the functional roles of CPSFL1/PITP7 using two A. thaliana mutants carrying a putative null allele (pitp7‐1) and a weak allele (pitp7‐2), respectively. PITP7 transcripts were undetectable in pitp7‐1 and less abundant in pitp7‐2 than in the wild‐type (WT). The severity of mutant phenotypes, such as plant developmental abnormalities, levels of plastoquinone‐9 (PQ‐9) and chlorophylls, photosynthetic protein complexes, and photosynthetic performance, were well related to PITP7 transcript levels. The pitp7‐1 mutation was seedling lethal and was associated with significantly lower levels of PQ‐9 and major photosynthetic proteins. pitp7‐2 plants showed greater susceptibility to high‐intensity light stress than the WT, attributable to defects in nonphotochemical quenching and photosynthetic electron transport. PITP7 is specifically bound to phosphatidylinositol phosphates (PIPs) in lipid‐binding assays in vitro, and the point mutations R82, H125, E162, or K233 reduced the binding affinity of PITP7 to PIPs. Further, constitutive expression of PITP7H125Q or PITP7E162K in pitp7‐1 homozygous plants restored autotrophic growth in soil but without fully complementing the mutant phenotypes. Consistent with a previous study, our results demonstrate that PITP7 is essential for plant development, particularly the accumulation of PQ‐9 and photosynthetic complexes. We propose a possible role for PITP7 in membrane trafficking of hydrophobic ligands such as PQ‐9 and carotenoids through chloroplast vesicle formation or direct binding involving PIPs.

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