Recipient Organization
WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY
240 FRENCH ADMINISTRATION BLDG
PULLMAN,WA 99164-0001
Performing Department
Inst of Biological Chemistry
Non Technical Summary
Plant lipids make up essential membranes of the cell, and storage oils that are used by humans for food, chemicals, and fuels.Essential to the function of lipids is the composition of different fatty acids within each lipid. For example, the fatty acidcomposition makes some plant oils better for human health, while others are better suited for chemicals and biofuels. To meetthe demands of a rising human population we need to both increase plant oil accumulation and optimize plant oil fatty acidcompositions for food, chemicals, or fuels. This research will investigate the control of plant lipid metabolism in model and cropspecies that can be used to breed or engineer enhanced plant oil crops of the future.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
100%
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Identify lipid-related mechanisms to increase agricultural resilience.
Develop crops with improved yield and/or functionality.
Project Methods
Plant lipid metabolism will be analyzed at the biochemical, genetic, molecular biology, and metabolic flux levels to understandbasic plant lipid metabolism, and how to engineer lipid metabolism for increased oil or altered oil fatty acid compositions forenhanced nutrition or to be more suitable for the oleochemical and biofuel industries. Plants utilized will represent wild-type,mutant and transgenic model and crop species with alterations in expression of potential lipid metabolic genes. Lipids will bequantified by standard lipid analysis methods including, TLC, HPLC, GC, and MS. Lipid metabolic flux will be measured throughisotopic labeling (radioactive or stable isotopes) with analysis by liquid scintillation counting or mass spectrometry.