Abstract

The first plant gene (At1g04010) encoding a sterol ester synthesising enzyme, the phospholipid:sterol acyltransferase (PSAT) has been identified in Arabidopsis and shown to belong to the LCAT/PDAT family (1). It is the first identified intracellular enzyme catalyzing the synthesis of sterol esters by an acyl CoA-independent reaction in which acyl groups are transacylated from phospholipids to sterols. The enzyme does not utilize neutral lipids, has highest activity with phosphatidylethanolamine, a five-fold preference for the sn-2 position and utilize both saturated and unsaturated fatty acids. The results presented implicate a role for AtPSAT in regulating both the amount and the quality of the free sterols in the membrane. Changes in fluorescence and pigment composition as well as the development of a chilling phenotype in the AtPSAT T-DNA knock after a switch to lower temperatures implies an importance of AtPSAT in temperature acclimation of plants

Published in

Conference

17th International symposium in Plant lipids

Authors' information