Isolation of Genes which Regulate Fatty Acid Desaturation in Arabidopsis

这项研究将确定如何去饱和膜脂 脂肪酸是有规律的。 因为我们无法 描述了大多数膜结合的酶， 脂肪酸去饱和的常规方法，小家庭 将克隆编码去饱和酶的基因。 克隆的 基因和针对这些基因产物的抗体将 然后用于测量去饱和酶基因产物的量 并检测了不同浓度的葡萄糖对膜脂组成的影响， 转基因植物中去饱和酶量的定量变化 植物 拟议的方法将利用一个独特的收集 脂肪酸变异的拟南芥突变体 去饱和，以便于分离和表征 去饱和酶基因家族。 脂肪酸不饱和度是质量的决定因素， 油料品种产品的经济价值。 因为 植物脂肪酸对人体的重要性 健康，能够控制程度将是有利的， 收获的作物组织中脂质的不饱和度 物种，使他们可以定制，以满足我们的营养 需求 这可能是非常具有成本效益的。 许多可以想象 了解去饱和酶的作用机制， 是受调控的，并拥有相关的基因。 Inasmuch 因为相同的酶似乎调节膜和储存 脂质组成，本提案的目标是有形的 朝这个方向走。

This research will determine how desaturation of membrane lipid fatty acids is regulated. Because it has not been possible to characterize most of the membrane-bound enzymes which catalyze fatty acid desaturation by conventional methods, the small family of genes encoding the desaturases will be cloned. The cloned genes and antibodies against the products of these genes will then be used to measure the amount of desaturase gene products and to examine the effect on membrane lipid composition of quantitative variation in the amount of desaturase in transgenic plants. The proposed approach will exploit a unique collection of mutants of Arabidopsis with alterations in fatty acid desaturation to facilitate the isolation and characterization of the family of desaturase genes. Fatty acid unsaturation is a determinant of the quality and economic value of the product from oilseed species. Because of the importance of nutritional fatty acids from plants in human health it would be advantageous to be able to control the degree of unsaturation of the lipids in the harvested tissue of crop species so that they can be tailored to meet our nutritional needs. This could be extremely cost effective. Many conceivable mechanisms of understanding of how the desaturases act, how they are regulated, and having the relevant genes in hand. Inasmuch as the same enzymes appear to regulate both membrane and storage lipid composition, the goals of this proposal represent tangible steps in this direction.