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Two Clades of Type-1 Brassica napus Diacylglycerol Acyltransferase Exhibit Differences in Acyl-CoA Preference

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Lipids

Abstract

Diacylglycerol acyltransferase (DGAT) catalyzes the acyl-CoA-dependent acylation of sn-1, 2-diacylglycerol to produce triacylglycerol, which is the main component of the seed oil of Brassica oilseed species. Phylogenetic analysis of the amino acid sequences encoded by four transcriptionally active DGAT1 genes from Brassica napus suggests that the gene forms diverged over time into two clades (I and II), with representative members in each genome (A and C). The majority of the amino acid sequence differences in these forms of DGAT1, however, reside outside of motifs suggested to be involved in catalysis. Despite this, the clade II enzymes displayed a significantly enhanced preference for linoleoyl-CoA when assessed using in-vitro enzyme assays with yeast microsomes containing recombinant enzyme forms. These findings contribute to our understanding of triacylglycerol biosynthesis in B. napus, and may advance our ability to engineer DGAT1s with desired substrate selectivity properties.

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Acknowledgements

Brassica napus line DH12075 was kindly provided by Drs. G. Séguin-Swartz and G. Rakow. RJW is grateful for support provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada, Alberta Enterprise and Advanced Education, Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions, and the Canada Research Chairs Program. MSG is a recipient of the NSERC Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship, the Alberta Innovates Graduate Student NSERC Top-up Award, and the President’s Doctoral Prize of Distinction. XP is the recipient of an Alberta Innovates Doctoral Award.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Agricultural Lipid Biotechnology Program, Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2P5, Canada

    Michael S. Greer, Xue Pan & Randall J. Weselake

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  1. Michael S. Greer
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  2. Xue Pan
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  3. Randall J. Weselake
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Correspondence to Randall J. Weselake.

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Greer, M.S., Pan, X. & Weselake, R.J. Two Clades of Type-1 Brassica napus Diacylglycerol Acyltransferase Exhibit Differences in Acyl-CoA Preference. Lipids 51, 781–786 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11745-016-4158-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11745-016-4158-5

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