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SYSTEMS BIOLOGY, MOLECULAR BIOLOGY, AND GENE REGULATION

LEAFY COTYLEDON1 Is a Key Regulator of Fatty Acid Biosynthesis in Arabidopsis^{1,[C],[W],[OA]}

State Key Laboratory of Plant Genomics and National Plant Gene Research Center (Beijing), Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China (J.M., H.T., Q.Z., F.F., Y.L., J.Z., X.Y., X.W., J.Z.); Graduate School, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China (J.M., H.T., Q.Z.); and Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China (T.W., K.C.)

In plants, fatty acids are de novo synthesized predominantly in plastids from acetyl-coenzyme A. Although fatty acid biosynthesis has been biochemically well studied, little is known about the regulatory mechanisms of the pathway. Here, we show that overexpression of the Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) LEAFY COTYLEDON1 (LEC1) gene causes globally increased expression of fatty acid biosynthetic genes, which are involved in key reactions of condensation, chain elongation, and desaturation of fatty acid biosynthesis. In the plastidial fatty acid synthetic pathway, over 58% of known enzyme-coding genes are up-regulated in LEC1-overexpressing transgenic plants, including those encoding three subunits of acetyl-coenzyme A carboxylase, a key enzyme controlling the fatty acid biosynthesis flux. Moreover, genes involved in glycolysis and lipid accumulation are also up-regulated. Consistent with these results, levels of major fatty acid species and lipids were substantially increased in the transgenic plants. Genetic analysis indicates that the LEC1 function is partially dependent on ABSCISIC ACID INSENSITIVE3, FUSCA3, and WRINKLED1 in the regulation of fatty acid biosynthesis. Moreover, a similar phenotype was observed in transgenic Arabidopsis plants overexpressing two LEC1-like genes of Brassica napus. These results suggest that LEC1 and LEC1-like genes act as key regulators to coordinate the expression of fatty acid biosynthetic genes, thereby representing promising targets for genetic improvement of oil production plants.

The author responsible for distribution of materials integral to the findings presented in this article in accordance with the policy described in the Instructions for Authors (www.plantphysiol.org) is: Jianru Zuo (jrzuo{at}genetics.ac.cn).

^[C] Some figures in this article are displayed in color online but in black and white in the print edition.

^[W] The online version of this article contains Web-only data.

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www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/doi/10.1104/pp.108.126342

^* Corresponding author; e-mail jrzuo{at}genetics.ac.cn.

Received July 12, 2008; accepted August 1, 2008; published August 8, 2008.

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