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Metabolically engineered rice biomass and grain using genes associated with lipid pathway show high level of oil content

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Abstract

Increasing lipid content using metabolic engineering methods in different parts of plant, including, leaves and stem can be considered as an innovative platform for achieving more energy and biofuel in more green habits. Two key enzymes, including, diacylglycerol acyltransferase (DGAT) and phospholipid:diacylglycerol acyltransferase (PDAT) catalyze the final step of TAG assembly. WRINKLED1 (WRI1) is one of the important transcription factors which regulate the fatty acid biosynthesis network and TAG accumulation by balancing carbon flux between carbohydrates and lipids. In addition, oleosin encoding gene (OLE) can protect TAGs from degradation by packing into oil bodies. In the current study, four important genes involved in TAG assembly and protection (i.e., AtDGAT1 and AtPDAT, AtWRI1, and AtOle) were overexpressed under a constitutive promoter in rice crop. TAG content of transgenic seeds increased significantly (P ≤ 0.05) by 26% in compared with those of control plants. Oleic and palmitic acid contents were significantly increased by 28% (from 32 to 41) and 27% (11 to 14) in seeds of transgenic plants in compared with controls, respectively. Our results showed an increase in the total grain and leaf oil contents by 70% (from 1.1 to 1.87%) and 22.5% (from 1.88 to 2.3%) in the metabolically engineered lines, respectively. This is the first report of transformation in rice for enhancing oil content and energy density in its seeds and vegetative parts. Such metabolically engineered crops would be cultivated for production much more oils in seeds and straw for food and biodiesel consequently.

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Acknowledgements

We sincerely thank Magyar Krueger of Michigan State University Biomass Conversion Research Laboratory for assisting with the oil extraction for GC–MS fatty acid profiling. We also thank Professor Emeritus John Ohlrogge of Michigan State University for the availability of the pWRI1 construct, and Dr. Changcheng Xu of the Brookhaven National Laboratory for the availability of pOle.

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No funding was received.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agronomy and Plant Breeding Sciences, College of Aburaihan, University of Tehran, P.O. Box: 3391653755, Tehran, Iran

    Ali Izadi-Darbandi

  2. Department of Forestry and Medicinal Plants, Ahar Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Tabriz, P.O. Box: 5166616471, 29 Bahman Blvd, Tabriz, Iran

    Mehdi Younessi-Hamzekhanlu

  3. Department of Plant, Soil, and Microbial Sciences, Michigan State University, 1066 Bogue St, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA

    Ali Izadi-Darbandi & Mariam Sticklen

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  1. Ali Izadi-Darbandi
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  3. Mariam Sticklen
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by [Ali Izadi-Darbandi], [Mehdi Younessi-Hamzekhanlu] and [Mariam Sticklen]. The first draft of the manuscript was written by [Ali Izadi-Darbandi and Mehdi Younessi-Hamzekhanlu] and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Ali Izadi-Darbandi.

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Izadi-Darbandi, A., Younessi-Hamzekhanlu, M. & Sticklen, M. Metabolically engineered rice biomass and grain using genes associated with lipid pathway show high level of oil content. Mol Biol Rep 47, 7917–7927 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-020-05837-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-020-05837-1

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