The SUGAR-DEPENDENT1 Lipase Limits Triacylglycerol Accumulation in Vegetative Tissues of Arabidopsis

There has been considerable interest recently in the prospect of engineering crops to produce triacylglycerol (TAG) in their vegetative tissues as a means to achieve a step change in oil yield. Here, we show that disruption of TAG hydrolysis in the Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) lipase mutant sugar-dependentl (sdp1) leads to a substantial accumulation of TAG in roots and stems but comparatively much lower TAG accumulation in leaves. TAG content in sdp1 roots increases with the age of the plant and can reach more than 1% of dry weight at maturity, a 50-fold increase over the wild type. TAG accumulation in sdp1 roots requires both ACYL-COENZYME A: DIACYLGLYCEROL ACYLTRANSFERASE1 (DGAT1) and PHOSPHATIDYLCHOLINE: DIACYLGLYCEROL ACYLTRANSFERASE1 and can also be strongly stimulated by the provision of exogenous sugar. In transgenic plants constitutively coexpressing WRINKLED1 and DGAT1, sdp1 also doubles the accumulation of TAG in roots, stems, and leaves, with levels ranging from 5% to 8% of dry weight. Finally, provision of 3% (w/v) exogenous Sue can further boost root TAG content in these transgenic plants to 17% of dry weight. This level of TAG is similar to seed tissues in many plant species and establishes the efficacy of an engineering strategy to produce oil in vegetative tissues that involves simultaneous manipulation of carbohydrate supply, fatty acid synthesis, TAG synthesis, and also TAG breakdown.