Determination of superior Pistacia chinensis accession with high-quality seed oil and biodiesel production and revelation of LEC1/WRI1-mediated high oil accumulative mechanism for better developing woody biodiesel

Feng Chen; Weijun Lin; Wei Li; Jinhe Hu; Zhi Li; Lingling Shi; Zhixiang Zhang; Yu Xiu; Shanzhi Lin

doi:10.1186/s12870-023-04267-y

Determination of superior Pistacia chinensis accession with high-quality seed oil and biodiesel production and revelation of LEC1/WRI1-mediated high oil accumulative mechanism for better developing woody biodiesel

BMC Plant Biol. 2023 May 19;23(1):268. doi: 10.1186/s12870-023-04267-y.

Authors

Feng Chen^#¹, Weijun Lin^#², Wei Li^#¹, Jinhe Hu¹, Zhi Li¹, Lingling Shi¹, Zhixiang Zhang¹, Yu Xiu³, Shanzhi Lin⁴

Affiliations

¹ Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Tree Breeding By Molecular Design, College of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, School of Soil and Water Conservation, National Engineering Laboratory for Tree Breeding, Key Laboratory of Genetics and Breeding in Forest Trees and Ornamental Plants, Ministry of Education, Tree and Ornamental Plant Breeding and Biotechnology Laboratory of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, China.
² Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China.
³ Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Tree Breeding By Molecular Design, College of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, School of Soil and Water Conservation, National Engineering Laboratory for Tree Breeding, Key Laboratory of Genetics and Breeding in Forest Trees and Ornamental Plants, Ministry of Education, Tree and Ornamental Plant Breeding and Biotechnology Laboratory of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, China. yuxiu@bjfu.edu.cn.
⁴ Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Tree Breeding By Molecular Design, College of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, School of Soil and Water Conservation, National Engineering Laboratory for Tree Breeding, Key Laboratory of Genetics and Breeding in Forest Trees and Ornamental Plants, Ministry of Education, Tree and Ornamental Plant Breeding and Biotechnology Laboratory of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, China. szlin@bjfu.edu.cn.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: Based on our previous studied on different provenances of Pistacia chinensis, some accessions with high quality and quantity of seed oils has emerged as novel source of biodiesel. To better develop P. chinensis seed oils as woody biodiesel, a concurrent exploration of oil content, FA profile, biodiesel yield, and fuel properties was conducted on the seeds from 5 plus germplasms to determine superior genotype for ideal biodiesel production. Another vital challenge is to unravel mechanism that govern the differences in oil content and FA profile of P. chinensis seeds across different accessions. FA biosynthesis and oil accumulation of oil plants are known to be highly controlled by the transcription factors. An integrated analysis of our recent transcriptome data, qRT-PCR detection and functional identification was performed as an attempt to highlight LEC1/WRI1-mediated transcription regulatory mechanism for high-quality oil accumulation in P. chinensis seeds.

Results: To select ideal germplasm and unravel high oil accumulative mechanism for developing P. chinensis seed oils as biodiesel, five plus trees (accession PC-BJ/PC-AH/PC-SX/PC-HN/PC-HB) with high-yield seeds were selected to assess the variabilities in weight, oil content, FA profile, biodiesel yield and fuel property, revealing a variation in the levels of seed oil (50.76-60.88%), monounsaturated FA (42.80-70.72%) and polyunsaturated FA (18.78-43.35%), and biodiesel yield (84.98-98.15%) across different accessions. PC-HN had a maximum values of seed weight (26.23 mg), oil (60.88%) and biodiesel yield (98.15%), and ideal proportions of C18:1 (69.94%), C18:2 (17.65%) and C18:3 (1.13%), implying that seed oils of accession PC-HN was the most suitable for ideal biodiesel production. To highlight molecular mechanism that govern such differences in oil content and FA profile of different accessions, a combination of our recent transcriptome data, qRT-PCR detection and protein interaction analysis was performed to identify a pivotal role of LEC1/WRI1-mediated transcription regulatory network in high oil accumulation of P. chinensis seeds from different accessions. Notably, overexpression of PcWRI1 or PcLEC1 from P. chinensis seeds in Arabidopsis could facilitate seed development and upregulate several genes relevant for carbon flux allocation (plastidic glycolysis and acetyl-CoA generation), FA synthesis, TAG assembly and oil storage, causing an increase in seed oil content and monounsaturated FA level, destined for biodiesel fuel property improvement. Our findings may present strategies for better developing P. chinensis seed oils as biodiesel feedstock and bioengineering its high oil accumulation.

Conclusions: This is the first report on the cross-accessions assessments of P. chinensis seed oils to determine ideal accession for high-quality biodiesel production, and an effective combination of PcWRI1 or PcLEC1 overexpression, morphological assay, oil accumulation and qRT-PCR detection was applied to unravel a role of LEC1/WRI1-mediated regulatory network for oil accumulation in P. chinensis seeds, and to highlight the potential application of PcWRI1 or PcLEC1 for increasing oil production. Our finding may provide new strategies for developing biodiesel resource and molecular breeding.

Keywords: Fuel properties; High oil accumulation; LEC1/WRI1-mediated regulation mechanism; Pistacia chinensis seed; Provenance selection; Woody biodiesel.

MeSH terms

Arabidopsis / metabolism
Biofuels*
Fatty Acids / metabolism
Pistacia* / genetics
Pistacia* / metabolism
Plant Oils* / metabolism
Seeds

Substances

Biofuels
Fatty Acids
Plant Oils