Variation on a theme: the structures and biosynthesis of specialized fatty acid natural products in plants

Plants are able to construct lineage-specific natural products from a wide array of their core metabolic pathways. Considerable progress has been made toward documenting and understanding, for example, phenylpropanoid natural products derived from phosphoenolpyruvate via the shikimate pathway, terpenoid compounds built using isopentyl pyrophosphate, and alkaloids generated by the extensive modification of amino acids. By comparison, natural products derived from fatty acids have received little attention, except for unusual fatty acids in seed oils and jasmonate-like oxylipins. However, scattered but numerous reports show that plants are able to generate many structurally diverse compounds from fatty acids, including some with highly elaborate and unique structural features that have novel bioproduct functionalities. Furthermore, although recent work has shed light on multiple new fatty acid natural product biosynthesis pathways and products in diverse plant species, these discoveries have not been reviewed. The aims of this work, therefore, are to (i) review and systematize our current knowledge of the structures and biosynthesis of fatty acid-derived natural products that are not seed oils or jasmonate-type oxylipins, specifically, polyacetylenic, very-long-chain, and aromatic fatty acid-derived natural products, and (ii) suggest priorities for future investigative steps that will bring our knowledge of fatty acid-derived natural products closer to the levels of knowledge that we have attained for other phytochemical classes

Location, Location, Location Should Be Environment, Environment, Environment : A Market-Based Tool to Simplify Environmental Considerations in Residential Real Estate

The most important rule of real estate (location, location, location) should be upgraded to the three E’s: environment, environment, environment. What we value in real estate is the natural and human environment of a site and its structures. A home is typically an American’s most significant asset; thus, environmental issues should be of interest, primarily because the effects of environmental degradation can cause devaluation while simultaneously imposing substantial expenses (such as cleanup, health care, and relocation) on the population. The real costs of ignoring the environment are life-threatening health and safety issues, including lung damage and cancer resulting from radon exposure, (which the EPA estimates kills 20,000 people per year), and indoor air pollution (from Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), for example), the effects of mold and polluted water, and heart and lung conditions related to poor air quality, result in thousands of premature deaths each year. Environmental issues include both anthropogenic sources and naturally occurring phenomena. The problem is that, for some buyers, sellers and professionals, obtaining accurate data is difficult. Many know there are issues, but they are unable to get straight-forward, manageable information. Some do not want to know of the issues, and others are overwhelmed. Complicating the matter for everyone is the reality that the laws related to disclosure and duties to prevent or mitigate harm vary significantly by jurisdiction, creating unpredictable rights and duties that range from caveat emptor to duties of reasonable inquiry. Consistency between jurisdictions is of greater importance than ever because of the mobility of the population. Even with guidance and reports from the EPA, the tools available to the majority of individuals seeking to make this most significant purchase, the real estate market does not address the health and safety risks caused by environmental degradation. Given this deficit in information, we propose a voluntary checklist to alert consumers, owners, and professionals of environmental issues that can impose significant costs for health care, remediation, and property devaluation. Knowledge of the issues should reduce disputes, and, over time, consumers may demand properties that are safer, with economic variables that are better quantified. That in turn should encourage sellers, builders and producers to satisfy the expectations of the consuming public with greener and more sustainable housing

METHOD FOR THE PRODUCTION OF HIGH SATURATED, LOW POLYUNSATURATED SOYBEAN OIL

Methods of genetically modifying soybean plants to alter the fatty acid properties of the oil are described

The pursuit of isotopic and molecular fire tracers in the polar atmosphere and cryosphere

We present an overview of recent multidisciplinary, multi-institutional efforts to identify and date major sources of combustion aerosol in the current and paleoatmospheres. The work was stimulated, in part, by an atmospheric particle \u27sample of opportunity\u27 collected at Summit, Greenland in August 1994, that bore the 14C imprint of biomass burning. During the summer field seasons of 1995 and 1996, we collected air filter, surface snow and snowpit samples to investigate chemical and isotopic evidence of combustion particles that had been transported from distant fires. Among the chemical tracers employed for source identification are organic acids, potassium and ammonium ions, and elemental and organic components of carbonaceous particles. Ion chromatography, performed by members of the Climate Change Research Center (University of New Hampshire), has been especially valuable in indicating periods at Summit that were likely to have been affected by the long range transport of biomass burning aerosol. Univariate and multivariate patterns of the ion concentrations in the snow and ice pinpointed surface and snowpit samples for the direct analysis of particulate (soot) carbon and carbon isotopes. The research at NIST is focusing on graphitic and polycyclic aromatic carbon, which serve as almost certain indicators of fire, and measurements of carbon isotopes, especially 14C, to distinguish fossil and biomass combustion sources. Complementing the chemical and isotopic record, are direct \u27visual\u27 (satellite imagery) records and less direct backtrajectory records, to indicate geographic source regions and transport paths. In this paper we illustrate the unique way in which the synthesis of the chemical, isotopic, satellite and trajectory data enhances our ability to develop the recent history of the formation and transport of soot deposited in the polar snow and ice

A thraustochytrid diacylglycerol acyltransferase 2 with broad substrate specificity strongly increases oleic acid content in engineered \u3ci\u3eArabidopsis thaliana\u3c/i\u3e seeds

Diacylglycerol acyltransferase (DGAT) catalyses the last step in acyl-CoA-dependent triacylglycerol (TAG) biosynthesis and is an important determinant of cellular oil content and quality. In this study, a gene, designated TaDGAT2, encoding a type 2 DGAT (DGAT2)-related enzyme was identified from the oleaginous marine protist Thraustochytrium aureum. The deduced TaDGAT2 sequence contains a ~460 amino acid domain most closely related to DGAT2s from Dictyostelium sp. (45–50% identity). Recombinant TaDGAT2 restored TAG biosynthesis to the Saccharomyces cerevisiae H1246 TAG-deficient mutant, and microsomes from the complemented mutant displayed DGAT activity with C16 and C18 saturated and unsaturated fatty acyl-CoA and diacylglycerol substrates. To examine its biotechnological potential, TaDGAT2 was expressed under control of a strong seed-specific promoter in wild-type Arabidopsis thaliana and the high linoleic acid fad3fae1 mutant. In both backgrounds, little change was detected in seed oil content, but a striking increase in oleic acid content of seeds was observed. This increase was greatest in fad3fae1 seeds, where relative amounts of oleic acid increased nearly 2-fold to \u3e50% of total fatty acids. In addition, \u3e2-fold increase in oleic acid levels was detected in the triacylglycerol sn-2 position and in the major seed phospholipid phosphatidylcholine. These results suggest that increased seed oleic acid content mediated by TaDGAT2 is influenced in part by the fatty acid composition of host cells and occurs not by enhancing oleic acid content at the TAG sn-3 position directly but by increasing total oleic acid levels in seeds, presumably by limiting flux through phosphatidylcholine-based desaturation reactions. Includes supplementary information

NOVEL ACYLTRANSERASES AND METHODS OF USING

Provided herein are novel acyltransferases and methods of using Such novel acyltransferases in making medium-chain fatty acids

A thraustochytrid diacylglycerol acyltransferase 2 with broad substrate specificity strongly increases oleic acid content in engineered \u3ci\u3eArabidopsis thaliana\u3c/i\u3e seeds

Diacylglycerol acyltransferase (DGAT) catalyses the last step in acyl-CoA-dependent triacylglycerol (TAG) biosynthesis and is an important determinant of cellular oil content and quality. In this study, a gene, designated TaDGAT2, encoding a type 2 DGAT (DGAT2)-related enzyme was identified from the oleaginous marine protist Thraustochytrium aureum. The deduced TaDGAT2 sequence contains a ~460 amino acid domain most closely related to DGAT2s from Dictyostelium sp. (45–50% identity). Recombinant TaDGAT2 restored TAG biosynthesis to the Saccharomyces cerevisiae H1246 TAG-deficient mutant, and microsomes from the complemented mutant displayed DGAT activity with C16 and C18 saturated and unsaturated fatty acyl-CoA and diacylglycerol substrates. To examine its biotechnological potential, TaDGAT2 was expressed under control of a strong seed-specific promoter in wild-type Arabidopsis thaliana and the high linoleic acid fad3fae1 mutant. In both backgrounds, little change was detected in seed oil content, but a striking increase in oleic acid content of seeds was observed. This increase was greatest in fad3fae1 seeds, where relative amounts of oleic acid increased nearly 2-fold to \u3e50% of total fatty acids. In addition, \u3e2-fold increase in oleic acid levels was detected in the triacylglycerol sn-2 position and in the major seed phospholipid phosphatidylcholine. These results suggest that increased seed oleic acid content mediated by TaDGAT2 is influenced in part by the fatty acid composition of host cells and occurs not by enhancing oleic acid content at the TAG sn-3 position directly but by increasing total oleic acid levels in seeds, presumably by limiting flux through phosphatidylcholine-based desaturation reactions. Includes supplementary information