Towards improving oil composition and content in oat through metabolic engineering

Energy densification and enrichment of monounsaturated fatty acids increases oat's nutritional value among small grain cereals. However, optimization of oat oil traits is challenging through conventional breeding. Using the biolistic method for oat's oil improvement, here we showed that metabolic engineering is a feasible strategy in improving the oil traits of oat. In this study, two constructs containing three genes involved in lipid biosynthesis pathway (AtWRI1, AtDGAT, and SiOLEOSIN) were transformed into oat cultivar 'Park' to enhance the oil composition and content in oat grain and leaves. We performed RNA-sequencing in mature seeds and boot leaves of trasngenic lines. Transgene expression contributed to a global transcriptional reprogramming in oat seeds and leaves. Endogenous DGAT, WRI1, and OLEOSIN genes were up regulated while the genes involved in fatty acid biosynthesis expressed in opposite way between oat seeds and leaves. Transcriptomic studies revealed differential gene expression mainly enriched in lipid metabolism. Overall design: We collected two different tissues from transgenic and wild-type lines with three biological replicates for RNA-seq.