Open Access

ARTICLE

Investigation of GhFAT Genes Related to Seed Oil Content and Fatty Acid Composition in Gossypium hirsutum L.

Ziyang Feng^1,#, Xinqi Cheng^2,#, Tianwen Wang³, Yongchao Han¹, Haihong Chen¹, Xinyu Zhang¹, Jie Sun¹, Wei Zhang^1,*, Feng Liu^1,*

1 Key Laboratory of Oasis Eco-Agriculture, College of Agriculture, Shihezi University, Shihezi, 832000, China
2 College of Biology and Agricultural Resources, Huanggang Normal University, Huanggang, 438000, China
3 College of Biology and Food Engineering, Anhui Polytechnic University, Wuhu, 241000, China

* Corresponding Authors: Wei Zhang. Email: ; Feng Liu. Email:
# These authors contributed equally to this work

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany 2023, 92(5), 1633-1647. https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2023.027542

Received 03 November 2022; Accepted 21 December 2022; Issue published 09 March 2023

Abstract

Fatty Acyl-ACP thioesterase (FAT) is a key enzyme controlling oil biosynthesis in plant seeds. FATs can be divided into two subfamilies, FATA and FATB according to their amino acid sequences and substrate specificity. The Upland cotton genome contains 20 GhFAT genes, amongst which 6 genes were of the GhFATA subfamily and 14 of the GhFATB subfamily. The 20 GhFAT genes are unevenly distributed on 14 chromosomes. The GhFATA genes have 5 or 7 exons and the GhFATB genes have 6 or 7 exons. All GhFAT proteins have the conserved Acyl-ACP_TE domain and PLN02370 super family, the typical characteristics of plant thioesterases. Analyses of the expression level of GhFATs and the compositions of fatty acid in 5–60 days-post-anthesis seeds showed that the ratio of saturated fatty acids to unsaturated fatty acids was consistent with the expression profile of GhFATB12, GhFATB3, and GhFATB10; the ratio of monounsaturated fatty acid to polyunsaturated fatty acids was consistent with the expression profile of GhFATA3. The oil contents of mature cottonseeds were positively correlated with the contents of palmitic acid and linolenic acid as well as seed vigor. These results provide essential information for further exploring the role(s) of the specific GhFATs in determining oil biosynthesis and cottonseed compositions.

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Keywords

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Supplementary Material

Supplementary Material File

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