Engineering the stereoisomeric structure of seed oil to mimic human milk fat

Human milk fat substitute (HMFS) is a class of structured lipid that is widely used as an ingredient in infant formulas. Like human milk fat, HMFS is characterized by enrichment of palmitoyl (C16:0) groups specifically at the middle (sn-2 or β) position on the glycerol backbone, and there is evidence that triacylglycerol (TAG) with this unusual stereoisomeric structure provides nutritional benefits. HMFS is currently made by in vitro enzyme-based catalysis because there is no appropriate biological alternative to human milk fat. Most of the fat currently used in infant formulas is obtained from plants, which exclude C16:0 from the middle position. In this study, we have modified the metabolic pathway for TAG biosynthesis in the model oilseed Arabidopsis thaliana to increase the percentage of C16:0 at the middle (vs. outer) positions by more than 20-fold (i.e., from ∼3% in wild type to >70% in our final iteration). This level of C16:0 enrichment is comparable to human milk fat. We achieved this by relocating the C16:0-specific chloroplast isoform of the enzyme lysophosphatidic acid acyltransferase (LPAT) to the endoplasmic reticulum so that it functions within the cytosolic glycerolipid biosynthetic pathway to esterify C16:0 to the middle position. We then suppressed endogenous LPAT activity to relieve competition and knocked out phosphatidylcholine:diacylglycerol cholinephosphotransferase activity to promote the flux of newly made diacylglycerol directly into TAG. Applying this technology to oilseed crops might provide a source of HMFS for infant formula.