Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 9, 2025

Dietary Supplementation of Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Caenorhabditis elegans
Published on: November 29, 2013
Explore the gene network regulating the composition of fatty acids in cottonseed
Lihong Ma1, Xinqi Cheng1, Chuan Wang1
1Key Laboratory of Oasis Eco-agriculture, College of Agriculture, Shihezi University, Shihezi, 832000, Xinjiang, China.
Background:
Cottonseed is one of the major sources of vegetable oil. Analysis of the dynamic changes of fatty acid components and the genes regulating the composition of fatty acids of cottonseed oil is of great significance for understanding the biological processes underlying biosynthesis of fatty acids and for genetic improving the oil nutritional qualities.
Results:
In this study, we investigated the dynamic relationship of 13 fatty acid components at 12 developmental time points of cottonseed (Gossypium hirsutum L.) and generated cottonseed transcriptome of the 12 time points. At 5-15 day post anthesis (DPA), the contents of polyunsaturated linolenic acid (C18:3n-3) and saturated stearic acid (C18:0) were higher, while linoleic acid (C18:2n-6) was mainly synthesized after 15 DPA. Using 5 DPA as a reference, 15,647 non-redundant differentially expressed genes were identified in 10-60 DPA cottonseed. Co-expression gene network analysis identified six modules containing 3275 genes significantly associated with middle-late seed developmental stages and enriched with genes related to the linoleic acid metabolic pathway and α-linolenic acid metabolism. Genes (Gh_D03G0588 and Gh_A02G1788) encoding stearoyl-ACP desaturase were identified as hub genes and significantly up-regulated at 25 DPA. They seemed to play a decisive role in determining the ratio of saturated fatty acids to unsaturated fatty acids. FAD2 genes (Gh_A13G1850 and Gh_D13G2238) were highly expressed at 25-50 DPA, eventually leading to the high content of C18:2n-6 in cottonseed. The content of C18:3n-3 was significantly decreased from 5 DPA (7.44%) to 25 DPA (0.11%) and correlated with the expression characteristics of Gh_A09G0848 and Gh_D09G0870.
Conclusions:
These results contribute to our understanding on the relationship between the accumulation pattern of fatty acid components and the expression characteristics of key genes involved in fatty acid biosynthesis during the entire period of cottonseed development.
More Related Videos
09:44RNAi-mediated Control of Aflatoxins in Peanut: Method to Analyze Mycotoxin Production and Transgene Expression in the Peanut/Aspergillus Pathosystem
Published on: December 21, 2015
07:25Lipid Supplementation for Longevity and Gene Transcriptional Analysis in Caenorhabditis elegans
Published on: December 9, 2022
Related Concept Videos
Overview of Fatty Acid Metabolism
Fatty acids are catabolized in a process called beta-oxidation, which takes place in the matrix of the mitochondria and converts their fatty acid chains into two-carbon units of acetyl groups. The acetyl...
Fats as Energy Storage Molecules
Cell Specific Gene Expression
Biosynthesis of Lipids
Regulation of Nuclear Protein Sorting
C4 Pathway and CAM
C4 Pathway
The C4 pathway is used by plants such as...