Identification and functional characterization of diacylglycerol acyltransferase 1 from Mortierella alpina

• 1、School of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi Jiangsu, 214122

Abstract：Mortierella alpina is an oil-producing microorganism for the commercial production of arachidonic acid. Its lipids are mainly stored in the form of triglycerides. However, there have been no reports on the functional properties of the diacylglycerol acyltransferase 1 (DGAT1) , which is the key rate-limiting enzyme in the triglyceride synthesis pathway in this strain. In order to study the function of DGAT1 in the synthesis of triglyceride of Mortierella alpina, this study screened the homologous gene Madgat1 by homology alignment, and identify its protein expression and its impact on lipid synthesis by heterologous expression in S. cerevisiae. As a result, Madgat1 showed the function of catalyzing the synthesis of TAG. The TAG content of the recombinants was increased by 7.2 times and the total fatty acid content was increased by 2.4 times. The results provide theoretical support for further improving the lipid production of oil-producing microorganisms such as Mortierella alpina by genetic engineering.

Keywords： Oil-producing microorganisms Mortierella alpina diacylglycerol acyltransferase fatty acid triglyceride heterologous expression