Gene silencing of Sugar-dependent 1 (JcSDP1), encoding a patatin-domain triacylglycerol lipase, enhances seed oil accumulation in Jatropha curcas

Abstract

Here, we showed that SDP1 deficiency enhances seed oil accumulation in Arabidopsis. Based on this result, we generated SDP1-deficient transgenic Jatropha plants using by RNAi technology with a native JcSDP1 promoter to silence endogenous JcSDP1 expression. Seeds of Jatropha JcSDP1-RNAi plants accumulated up to 30% higher total lipid and had reduced FFA content compared with control (CK; 35S:GFP) plants. Our strategy of improving an important agronomic trait of Jatropha can be extended to other oil crops to yield higher seed oil.