Glycine max acyl–acyl carrier protein thioesterase B gene overexpression alters lipid content and fatty acid profile of Arabidopsis seeds

Shihui Zhao; Fan Yan; Yajing Liu; Monan Sun; Ying Wang; Jingwen Li; Xinsheng Zhang; Xuguang Yang; Qingyu Wang

doi:10.1071/FP23001

RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

Glycine max acyl–acyl carrier protein thioesterase B gene overexpression alters lipid content and fatty acid profile of Arabidopsis seeds

Shihui Zhao ^A ^# , Fan Yan ^A ^# , Yajing Liu ^A , Monan Sun ^A , Ying Wang ^A , Jingwen Li ^A , Xinsheng Zhang ^A , Xuguang Yang

^A ^* and Qingyu Wang

^A ^*

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A College of Plant Science, Jilin University, Changchun, China.

^* Correspondence to: xgyang@jlu.edu.cn, qywang@jlu.edu.cn

Handling Editor: Helen Irving

Functional Plant Biology 51, FP23001 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP23001

Submitted: 14 January 2023 Accepted: 20 December 2023 Published: 17 January 2024

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

The fatty acyl–acyl carrier protein thioesterase B (FATB) gene, involved in the synthesis of saturated fatty acids, plays an important role in the content of fatty acid and composition of seed storage lipids. However, the role of FATB in soybeans (Glycine max) has been poorly characterised. This paper presents a preliminary bioinformatics and molecular biological investigation of 10 hypothetical FATB members. The results revealed that GmFATB1B, GmFATB2A and GmFATB2B contain many response elements involved in defense and stress responses and meristem tissue expression. Moreover, the coding sequences of GmFATB1A and GmFATB1B were significantly longer than those of the other genes. Their expression varied in different organs of soybean plants during growth, with GmFATB2A and GmFATB2B showing higher relative expression. In addition, subcellular localisation analysis revealed that they were mainly present in chloroplasts. Overexpression of GmFATB1A, GmFATB1B, GmFATB2A and GmFATB2B in transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana plants increased the seed oil content by 10.3%, 12.5%, 7.5% and 8.4%, respectively, compared to that in the wild-type and led to significant increases in palmitic and stearic acid content. Thus, this research has increased our understanding of the FATB family in soybeans and provides a theoretical basis for subsequent improvements in soybean quality.

Keywords: acyl–acyl carrier protein thioesterase B (FATB), fatty acid, gene cloning, oil content, oleic acid, overexpression, soybean (Glycine max L.), subcellular localisation.

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