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A phenylalanine in DGAT is a key determinant of oil content and composition in maize

Abstract

Plant oil is an important renewable resource for biodiesel production and for dietary consumption by humans and livestock. Through genetic mapping of the oil trait in plants, studies have reported multiple quantitative trait loci (QTLs) with small effects, but the molecular basis of oil QTLs remains largely unknown1,2,3,4,5. Here we show that a high-oil QTL (qHO6) affecting maize seed oil and oleic-acid contents encodes an acyl-CoA:diacylglycerol acyltransferase (DGAT1-2), which catalyzes the final step of oil synthesis. We further show that a phenylalanine insertion in DGAT1-2 at position 469 (F469) is responsible for the increased oil and oleic-acid contents. The DGAT1-2 allele with F469 is ancestral, whereas the allele without F469 is a more recent mutant selected by domestication or breeding. Ectopic expression of the high-oil DGAT1-2 allele increases oil and oleic-acid contents by up to 41% and 107%, respectively. This work provides insights into the molecular basis of natural variation of oil and oleic-acid contents in plants and highlights DGAT as a promising target for increasing oil and oleic-acid contents in other crops.

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Figure 1: Mapping and cloning of qHO6.
Figure 2: Transgenic ectopic expression of DGAT1-2 in maize.
Figure 3: Expression of maize DGAT 1-2 variants in yeast.
Figure 4: Plant type I DGAT phylogeny and the association of F469 with oil and oleic-acid content in maize.

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Acknowledgements

We thank B. Li for providing the maize physical map and advice on map-based cloning, S. Zhen for growing corn plants in the greenhouse, C. Li for laboratory support, J. Hazebroek for fatty acid composition analysis, H. Sullivan for SNP marker development, the Pioneer molecular marker laboratory for genotyping, T. Colbert for valuable discussion and D. Selinger and M. Ayele for bioinformatics support. We are grateful to B. Hitz for his support and R. Jung for critical review of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

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Contributions

B.S. and M.C.T. conceived and directed the project; M.E.W., G.Y.Z., P.Z. and J.L. conducted oil QTL mapping; P.Z. conducted fine mapping and cloning; W.B.A. performed the oil analysis; K.R. and S.Z. performed DGAT activity assay and immunoblot; K.G. conducted vector construction; J.R. conducted corn transformation; D.N. and W.S. conducted field experiments; D.B. completed genotyping; V.L. and S.D. conducted BAC sequencing and DGAT resequencing; B.S., P.Z., K.R. and M.C.T. analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Bo Shen.

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Supplementary Tables 1 and 2, Supplementary Figures 1–4 (PDF 43 kb)

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Zheng, P., Allen, W., Roesler, K. et al. A phenylalanine in DGAT is a key determinant of oil content and composition in maize. Nat Genet 40, 367–372 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.85

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