= Lysophosphatidate acyltransferase (LPAAT) =
== Summary ==
Woodfield, Helen; Fenyk, Stepan; Wallington,  Emma; Bates, Ruth;  Brown,  Alexander; Guschina, Irina; Marillia,  Elizabeth; Taylor, David;  Fell,  David; Harwood, John; Fawcett, Tony. ''Increase  in lysophosphatidate  acyltransferase activity in oilseed  rape  (Brassica napus L.)  increases seed triacylglycerol content despite  its  low intrinsic flux  control coefficient. '' New Phytologist, 224, 700-711 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.16100

 * Lysophosphatidate acyltransferase (LPAAT) catalyses the second step of the Kennedy pathway for triacylglycerol (TAG) synthesis. In this study we expressed Trapaeolum majus LPAAT in Brassica napus (B. napus) cv 12075 to evaluate the effects on lipid synthesis and estimate the flux control coefficient for LPAAT.
 * We estimated the flux control coefficient of LPAAT in a whole plant context by deriving a relationship between it and overall lipid accumulation, given that this is an exponential process.
 * Increasing LPAAT activity resulted in greater TAG accumulation in seeds of between 25 and 29 %; altered fatty acid distributions in seed lipids (particularly those of the Kennedy pathway); and a redistribution of label from 14C-glycerol between phosphoglycerides.
 * Greater LPAAT activity in seeds led to an increase in TAG content despite its low intrinsic flux control coefficient on account of the exponential nature of lipid accumulation that amplifies the effect of the small flux increment achieved by increasing its activity.
 * We have also developed a novel application of metabolic control analysis likely to have broad application as it determines the in planta flux control that a single component has upon accumulation of storage products.

The method for estimating the flux control coefficient to a product coupled to exponential growth is justified in: Fell D.A. ''Metabolic Control Analysis of Exponential Growth and Product Formation''. 2018 bioRxiv doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/485680