Metabolically engineered rice biomass and grain using genes associated with lipid pathway show high level of oil content.

Increasing lipid content using metabolic engineering methods in different parts of plant, including, leaves and stem can be considered as an innovative platform for achieving more energy and biofuel in more green habits. Two key enzymes, including, diacylglycerol acyltransferase (DGAT) and phospholipid:diacylglycerol acyltransferase (PDAT) catalyze the final step of TAG assembly. WRINKLED1 (WRI1) is one of the important transcription factors which regulate the fatty acid biosynthesis network and TAG accumulation by balancing carbon flux between carbohydrates and lipids. In addition, oleosin encoding gene (OLE) can protect TAGs from degradation by packing into oil bodies. In the current study, four important genes involved in TAG assembly and protection (i.e., AtDGAT1 and AtPDAT, AtWRI1, and AtOle) were overexpressed under a constitutive promoter in rice crop. TAG content of transgenic seeds increased significantly (P ≤ 0.05) by 26% in compared with those of control plants. Oleic and palmitic acid contents were significantly increased by 28% (from 32 to 41) and 27% (11 to 14) in seeds of transgenic plants in compared with controls, respectively. Our results showed an increase in the total grain and leaf oil contents by 70% (from 1.1 to 1.87%) and 22.5% (from 1.88 to 2.3%) in the metabolically engineered lines, respectively. This is the first report of transformation in rice for enhancing oil content and energy density in its seeds and vegetative parts. Such metabolically engineered crops would be cultivated for production much more oils in seeds and straw for food and biodiesel consequently.