Substrate specificity modification of the stromal glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase

The stromal glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferases (GPATs; EC 2.3.1.15) from spinach (Spinacia oleracea) and squash (Cucurbita moschata) were expressed in Escherichia coli and their activities with palmitoyl-CoA and oleoyl-CoA compared. The GPAT from squash, a chilling-sensitive plant, was found to have the greatest difference in activities between the two substrates, using palmitoyl-CoA over three times faster than oleoyl-CoA. In contrast, the enzyme from spinach, a chilling-tolerant plant, preferred oleoyl-CoA over palmitoyl-CoA. By using conserved restriction endonuclease sites each of the two genes was divided into three fragments of roughly equal size and recombined to create six different chimeras. All chimeras retained a large portion of their original activity but in most cases the specificity was greatly altered. The central third of the protein was found to contain the structural features which determine substrate specificity of the wild-type GPATs. Two of the chimeras, which have a spinach-derived central region and a squash-derived carboxyl region, were found to have greatly enhanced specificities for 18:1 acyl chains, potentially making them ideal for decreasing the level of saturation of plant membrane lipids through genetic engineering.