Sesamum indicum Oleosin L improves oil packaging in Nicotiana benthamiana leaves

• Published in: Plant direct Vol. 5; no. 9; pp. e343 - n/a
• Main Authors: Yee, Suyan, Rolland, Vivien, Reynolds, Kyle B., Shrestha, Pushkar, Ma, Lina, Singh, Surinder P., Vanhercke, Thomas, Petrie, James R., El Tahchy, Anna
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.09.2021; John Wiley and Sons Inc; Wiley
• Subjects: Arabidopsis thaliana; Biodegradation; biomass; Biosynthesis; Cloning; Confocal microscopy; droplets; Genes; leaf dry mass; leaf oil; Leaves; lipid biosynthesis; lipid content; lipid droplet protein; Lipids; Metabolism; Nicotiana benthamiana; Oil; oil increase; Oleosin; Original Research; plant fats and oils; Plasmids; Proteins; Seeds; Senescence; Sesamum indicum; triacylglycerol storage; triacylglycerols; Nicotiana benthamiana; oleosin; triacylglycerol storage; leaf oil; lipid biosynthesis; oil increase; lipid droplet protein
• ISSN: 2475-4455; 2475-4455
• DOI: 10.1002/pld3.343

Plant oil production has been increasing continuously in the past decade. There has been significant investment in the production of high biomass plants with elevated oil content. We recently showed that the expression of Arabidopsis thaliana WRI1 and DGAT1 genes increase oil content by up to 15% in leaf dry weight tissue. However, triacylglycerols in leaf tissue are subject to degradation during senescence. In order to better package the oil, we expressed a series of lipid droplet proteins isolated from bacterial and plant sources in Nicotiana benthamiana leaf tissue. We observed further increases in leaf oil content of up to 2.3‐fold when we co‐expressed Sesamum indicum Oleosin L with AtWRI1 and AtDGAT1. Biochemical assays and lipid droplet visualization with confocal microscopy confirmed the increase in oil content and revealed a significant change in the size and abundance of lipid droplets.