Page 58 - ebook

[A. Biochemistry/Molecular Biology] A-29

Base editing of Arabidopsis thaliana DGAT1 gene for

modification of seed oil biosynthesis and 3D structure of

DGAT1 protein

Won Nyeong Kim¹, Hyun Uk Kim¹*

¹Department of Bioindustry and Bioresource Engineering, Sejong University, Seoul 05006, Korea

In the rising concern of climate change and dissipating petroleum, the importance of vegetable oil (triacylglycerol:
TAG) is getting highlighted. Due to the structural similarity between petroleum and vegetable oil, many industrial

products which traditionally processed from petroleum can be replaced with Phyto-based materials. To meet this
escalating demands of vegetable oil, a fundamental understanding of TAG accumulation by fatty acid biosynthesase

should be the key. At this point, diacylglycerol acyltransferase 1 (DGAT1) is a crucial enzyme to solve the problem.
DGAT1 is endoplasmic reticulum (ER) located transmembrane enzyme and takes part in the final transfer of acyl

chain to diacylglycerol to make TAG. In this study, we used base editing technology to edit fifty-two target sites in
seven functional domains of DGAT1 expecting changes of enzyme properties in TAG production. By far, total five

types of base edited homo transgenic Arabidopsis were generated. Also, based on 3D model of human DGAT1
protein, five 3D structures of each base edited DGAT1 has been built. We will discuss the changes in seed fatty acid
profile of these five DGAT1 variant mutants in perspective of physical differences which newly found by building

five 3D structures of edited DGAT1 protein.