Identification of transcription factors responsible for seed oil content by Chimeric REpressor Gene-Silencing Technology (CRES-T)

Abstract

It is generally considered that plant seed oil is a potent resource for bio-diesel fuel and bio-plastics. However, there have been a few examples of molecular breeding that successfully increase the oil content of plant seeds, mainly because the mechanism governing oil storage in plant seeds have been poorly understood.
In this study, to find out genes that could regulate seed oil storage, we prepared 200 of the chimeric gene constructs for transcription factor to which the plant specific repression domain was fused, and were introduced into Arabidopsis thaliana individually. The contents of T2 seeds oil were nondestructively measured in 10 stocks for each gene transformant by ¹H-pulse NMR. Some strains were obtained whose oil contents were increased about 20 % in comparison with those of wild type. In these strains, AP2/ERF and MYB family were found to be included.