Ribozyme termination of RNA transcripts down‐regulate seed fatty acid genes in transgenic soybean

Buhr, Tony L.; Sato, Shirley; Ebrahim, Farida; Xing, Aiqiu; Zhou, You; Mathiesen, Michelle R.; Schweiger, Bruce; Kinney, Anthony J.; Staswick, Paul E.; Clemente, Tom

doi:10.1046/j.1365-313x.2002.01283.x

Cited by 172 publications

(155 citation statements)

References 37 publications

(39 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

149

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…This can also be achieved by manipulation of TAG biosynthesis. In soybean, reduced levels of the saturated fatty acid palmitate were obtained by downreglation of FATB, an acyl-ACP thioesterase, causing the accumulation of oleic acid up to 85% from 18% in the wild type [30]. A Jatropha cDNA encoding a putative FATB homolog, JcFATB1, has been recently cloned [31].…”

Section: Targeting Plant Oil Metabolismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic and biotechnological approaches for biofuel crop improvement

Vega‐Sánchez

Ronald

2010

Current Opinion in Biotechnology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Research and development efforts for biofuel production are targeted at converting plant biomass into renewable liquid fuels. Major obstacles for biofuel production include lack of biofuel crop domestication, low oil yields from crop plants as well as recalcitrance of lignocellulose to chemical and enzymatic breakdown. Researchers are expanding the genetic and genomic resources available for crop improvement, elucidating lipid metabolism to facilitate manipulation of fatty acid biosynthetic pathways and studying how plant cell walls are synthesized and assembled. This knowledge will be used to produce the next generation of biofuel crops by increasing fatty acid content and by optimizing the hydrolysis of plant cell walls to release fermentable sugars. Introduction Biofuels are commonly defined as fuels derived from renewable biological products and are often regarded as an attractive, 'green' alternative to fossil sources of energy due to their potential contribution to lowering carbon dioxide emissions [1]. Globally, plants produce an estimated 200 billion tones of biomass per year [2] in the form of sugars, polysaccharides, oils and other biopolymers, representing an unprecedented resource for biofuel production. However, despite its abundance and potential environmental benefits, the efficient and sustainable use of plant biomass for energy purposes remains a challenging endeavor, requiring major investments in science and technology [3,4].With the exception of sugar cane ethanol, biofuels are a nascent industry in many parts of the world. A few of the commercialized products include bioethanol derived from corn starch and biodiesel obtained from plants with a high content in fatty acids such as soybean, canola and sunflower ( Figure 1). However, the status of corn and soybean as major food crops, coupled to the fact that yields of starch and plant oil are too modest to cover the huge demand of transportation fuels has prompted the development of alternative biofuel production based on lignocellulosic biomass [4][5][6]. Lignocellulose, composed of the polysaccharides cellulose and hemicellulose, and lignin, a phenolic polymer, is the most abundant biomaterial on earth [2,7]. Most lignocellulosic feedstocks in consideration are perennial, non-food grasses such as switchgrass and Miscanthus, as well as woody plants such as poplar (Table 1).None of the current and potential crops has been domesticated or bred for improved polysaccharide or oil extraction for biofuel production. For this reason, biofuel research is focused towards understanding the plant biomass characteristics and traits that need to be modified to optimize crops for biofuel production. The wealth of genetic and genomic resources in model plants such as rice, Arabidopsis and Brachypodium are being used to answer fundamental scientific questions that cannot be addressed directly using potential biofuel crops. This review will discuss the recent advances in understanding lignocellulosic biomass recalcitrance and lipid metabolism for increasing oi...

show abstract

Section: Targeting Plant Oil Metabolismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic and biotechnological approaches for biofuel crop improvement

Vega‐Sánchez

Ronald

2010

Current Opinion in Biotechnology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The nature of the postulated aberrant RNA remains unknown [1,2,5,38], but PTGS can be induced in soybean and tobacco by transgenes expressing ribozyme-truncated transcripts that are not polyadenylated and are preferentially retained in the nucleus [46]. In Drosophila, the post-transcriptional silencing of alcohol dehydrogenase transgenes-a phenomenon that is similar to PTGS induced by sense transgenes in plants-is dependent on the Argonaute family member Piwi [47].…”

Section: Potential Amplification Processes In Rnai and Ptgsmentioning

confidence: 99%

RNA interference: traveling in the cell and gaining functions?

Cerutti

2003

Trends in Genetics

157

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Double-stranded RNA can induce the degradation of homologous RNAs in organisms as diverse as protozoa, animals, plants and fungi, resulting in post-transcriptional gene silencing. But in some species, RNA-mediated processes can also lead to translational repression, DNA methylation, heterochromatin formation or DNA elimination. In some situations, amplification of the "trigger" double-stranded RNA seems to be required for efficient silencing. These findings imply that RNA-mediated mechanisms can control gene expression at both the transcriptional and the post-transcriptional level, and that they can operate in the nuclear and the cytoplasmic compartments.Double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) can induce many different epigenetic gene-silencing processes in eukaryotes, including the degradation of homologous mRNAs-a process that is known as RNA interference (RNAi) in animals and post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS) in plants. Components of the RNAi and PTGS machinery are also involved in the processing and function of microRNAs, a class of small RNAs that were originally identified by their role in translational repression in some animals.Recent findings have also suggested that dsRNA that has been processed into small RNAs has a role in several chromatin and/or genomic DNA modifications. These observations indicate that dsRNA-dependent mechanisms can affect either post-transcriptional or transcriptional phenomena, raising issues about the subcellular location of the RNAi and PTGS machinery.

show abstract

“…In the case of FATB, a previous antisense and overexpression study in Arabidopsis demonstrated that this enzyme is involved, at least in part, in the in vivo production of saturates in flowers and seeds (Doermann et al, 2000). Similarly, downregulation of FATB expression in soybean also demonstrates partial reduction of seed palmitic acid (Wilson et al, 2001;Buhr et al, 2002). However, the origin of palmitic acid, which remains after gene-silencing procedures, and the extent to which each class of thioesterase contributes in vivo to the production of exportable fatty acids by different tissues remain unresolved.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Disruption of theFATBGene in Arabidopsis Demonstrates an Essential Role of Saturated Fatty Acids in Plant Growth

et al. 2003

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Acyl-acyl carrier protein thioesterases determine the amount and type of fatty acids that are exported from the plastids. To better understand the role of the FATB class of acyl-acyl carrier protein thioesterases, we identified an Arabidopsis mutant with a T-DNA insertion in the FATB gene. Palmitate (16:0) content of glycerolipids of the mutant was reduced by 42% in leaves, by 56% in flowers, by 48% in roots, and by 56% in seeds. In addition, stearate (18:0) was reduced by 50% in leaves and by 30% in seeds. The growth rate was reduced in the mutant, resulting in 50% less fresh weight at 4 weeks compared with wild-type plants. Furthermore, mutant plants produced seeds with low viability and altered morphology. Analysis of individual glycerolipids revealed that the fatty acid composition of prokaryotic plastid lipids was largely unaltered, whereas the impact on eukaryotic lipids varied but was particularly severe for phosphatidylcholine, with a Ͼ 4-fold reduction of 16:0 and a 10-fold reduction of 18:0 levels. The total wax load of fatb-ko plants was reduced by 20% in leaves and by 50% in stems, implicating FATB in the supply of saturated fatty acids for wax biosynthesis. Analysis of C 18 sphingoid bases derived from 16:0 indicated that, despite a 50% reduction in exported 16:0, the mutant cells maintained wild-type levels of sphingoid bases, presumably at the expense of other cell components. The growth retardation caused by the fatb mutation was enhanced in a fatb-ko act1 double mutant in which saturated fatty acid content was reduced further. Together, these results demonstrate the in vivo role of FATB as a major determinant of saturated fatty acid synthesis and the essential role of saturates for the biosynthesis and/or regulation of cellular components critical for plant growth and seed development.

show abstract

Ribozyme termination of RNA transcripts down‐regulate seed fatty acid genes in transgenic soybean

Cited by 172 publications

References 37 publications

Genetic and biotechnological approaches for biofuel crop improvement

Genetic and biotechnological approaches for biofuel crop improvement

RNA interference: traveling in the cell and gaining functions?

Disruption of theFATBGene in Arabidopsis Demonstrates an Essential Role of Saturated Fatty Acids in Plant Growth

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About