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Mobilizing Vacuolar Sugar Increases Vegetative Triacylglycerol Accumulation
Sanket Anaokar1, Hui Liu1, Jantana Keereetaweep1
1Brookhaven National Laboratory, Biology Department, Upton, NY, United States.
Frontiers in Plant Science
|August 30, 2021
Summary
Mobilizing vacuolar sugar in Arabidopsis plants significantly boosts fatty acid (FA) and triacylglycerol (TAG) accumulation. This strategy increases vegetative oil production by enhancing intracellular carbon supply for synthesis.
Area of Science:
- Plant Physiology
- Biochemistry
- Molecular Biology
Background:
- Photosynthetic sugars are crucial for plant metabolism, providing carbon skeletons and signaling molecules for anabolism.
- Sugar availability for fatty acid (FA) and triacylglycerol (TAG) synthesis is regulated by compartmentation, transport, and competing metabolic pathways.
- Previous studies showed that reduced sugar export (suc2 mutant) and impaired starch synthesis (adg1 mutant) in Arabidopsis increase sugar levels, FA, and TAG.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the influence of sugar partitioning between the vacuole and cytoplasm on FA synthesis in Arabidopsis.
- To determine if relocalizing sugar from the vacuole to the cytoplasm can enhance FA/TAG synthesis and plant growth.
Main Methods:
- Generated a homozygous Arabidopsis line (suc2 adg1 tmt1 tmt2 SUC4) by crossing suc2 adg1 mutants with tonoplast monosaccharide transporter (tmt1, tmt2) mutants and overexpressing the SUC4 gene.
- The tmt1 tmt2 mutations impair vacuolar sugar import, while SUC4 overexpression facilitates sugar export from the vacuole to the cytoplasm.
- Quantified leaf total FA and TAG content in the engineered line compared to the suc2 adg1 parent.
Main Results:
- The suc2 adg1 tmt1 tmt2 SUC4 line exhibited significantly increased leaf total FA content (1.29-fold increase to 10.9% of dry weight) compared to the suc2 adg1 line.
- TAG accumulation was also significantly enhanced, showing a 2.4-fold increase to 2.88% of dry weight in the engineered line.
- These results support the hypothesis that increased intracellular sugar supply drives higher FA and TAG accumulation.
Conclusions:
- Mobilizing vacuolar sugar stores into the cytoplasm is an effective strategy for increasing vegetative oil accumulation in plants.
- Manipulating sugar transport mechanisms offers a potential route for enhancing the production of fatty acids and triacylglycerols in plant biomass.
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