Expression of Physaria longchain acyl-CoA synthetases and hydroxy fatty acid accumulation in transgenic Arabidopsis

Hydroxy fatty acids (HFA) are industrially useful chemical feedstocks that accumulate in seed-storage triacylglycerols (TAG) of several plant species, including castor (Ricinus communis) and Physaria (Physaria fendleri). For researchers, HFA also offer a unique opportunity to trace fatty acid metabolism and modification. Past work producing HFA in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) has demonstrated the importance of isozymes of TAG synthesis from plants that evolved to store HFA and as a result have a high degree of specificity towards HFA substrates. Castor phospholipase A2α (RcPLA2) has specificity for HFA-containing phosphatidylcholine. However, expression of RcPLA2 in HFA-accumulating Arabidopsis line CL37-PLA2 reduced HFA content of TAG. This loss was interpreted as being due to poor ability of Arabidopsis longchain acyl-CoA synthetases (LACSs) to utilize HFAs substrates. LACS enzymes are essential to activate HFA to HFA-CoA for TAG synthesis. Physaria is a close relative of Arabidopsis in the Brassicaceae family. To test the hypothesis that this close relatedness would allow Physaria LACSs to interface successfully with Arabidopsis enzymes of seed lipid metabolism and thereby restore HFA accumulation, we transformed PfLACS4 and PfLACS8 constructs into the CL37-PLA2 line. However, HFA content was not recovered, and biochemical characterization of recombinant PfLACS4 and PfLACS8 indicated that these isozymes have substrate specificities and selectivities that are similar to their Arabidopsis orthologues. These and other results pose an important question about how HFA synthesized on phosphatidylcholine can be transferred into the acyl-CoA pool for TAG synthesis.

Clade-specific positive selection on a developmental gene: BRANCHLESS TRICHOME and the evolution of stellate trichomes in Physaria (Brassicaceae)

Positive selection is known to drive the evolution of genes involved in evolutionary arms races, but what role does it play in the evolution of genes involved in developmental processes? We used the single-celled epidermal trichomes of Brassicaceae as a model to uncover the molecular evolutionary processes that contributed to the transition from dendritic trichomes, as seen in most species of Brassicaceae, to the distinctive stellate trichomes of the genus Physaria. We explored the role of positive selection on the evolution of BRANCHLESS TRICHOME (BLT), a candidate gene for changes in trichome branching pattern. Maximum likelihood models of codon evolution point to a shift in selective pressure affecting the evolution of BLT across the entire Physaria clade, and we found strong evidence that positive selection has acted on a subset of Physaria BLT codons. Almost all of the 10 codon sites with the highest probability of having evolved under positive selection are clustered in a predicted coiled-coil domain, pointing to changes in protein-protein interactions. Thus, our findings suggest that selection acted on BLT to modify its interactions with other proteins. The fact that positive selection occurred throughout the radiation of Physaria could reflect selection to stabilize development in response to an abrupt switch from the dendritic form to the stellate form, divergent selection for diversification of the stellate form, or both. These results point to the need for evolutionary developmental studies of BLT and its interacting proteins in Physaria.