Page 708 - e-Book

Bioinformatics Analysis of Genes involved in Triacylglycerol
Biosynthesis in Angiosperms and their relevance to Biofuel

Production
Dr. Punam Puri1, Dr. Anjana Bhatia2, Dr. Harpreet Singh3

Govt. Department of Education1 , Department of Botany HMV College2 & Department of
Bioinformatics, HMV College3 Jalandhar.
Contact:-09855517007 punam.puri@yahoo.com1
Correspondant Author2

Abstract: There is a rapidly growing awareness that angiosperms have a wide assortment of

genes responsible for triacylglycerol biosynthesis which plays a key role in oil production.
Triacylglycerols (TAG) are mainly found in latex of angiosperms and latex in turn is known

to be a potential source of biofuel. Although, a great deal has been done to analyze chemical
composition of latex and its potential for biofuel production, the in depth genomic analysis

using bioinformatic tools to understand the evolution and function of gene families involved

in TAG biosynthesis in plants has yet not been done. In this study, an effort has been made
to study various genes responsible for TAG biosynthesis in a number of energy crops

belonging to Asteraceae, Arecaceae, Brassicaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Fabaceae, Solanaceae,
Poaceae, Rosaceae and Cucurbitaceae. The focus of this study is mainly on DGAT 1 gene.

In silico comparison of protein sequences of DGAT 1 genes responsible for triacyglcerol
biosynthesis across various members of energy crops was done by taking DGAT 1 protein

sequence of Jatropha sp. as a reference. The high level of conservation of DGAT 1

functional domain sequences was observed in the multiple sequence alignment with small
variations in form of Indels in few plant species. The analysis of conserved domains was

carried using the SMART domain analysis server which revealed highly conserved DGAT 1
domain, particularly nine transmembrane regions in all the species compared except for

Morus notabilis lacking the last two transmembrane regions. To inspect the evolutionary

history of this protein family among the plants, the phylogenetic tree was constructed with
MEGA 6.06 program using the neighbour-joining (NJ) method. The predicted variations

would help to carry out future genetic/molecular biological studies of potential energy crops.
Keywords: TAG, DGAT 1, Genes, Phylogenetic tree, Biofuel

INTRODUCTION

Triacyglycerol is the main component of the oil of the seeds or oleaginous plants and mostly
serves as an energy store to support the growth of the young seedlings during early stages of

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