This Research Topic is part of the Lipid Metabolism in Development and Environmental Stress Tolerance for Engineering Agronomic Traits series:
Lipid Metabolism in Development and Environmental Stress Tolerance for Engineering Agronomic TraitsLipids are not only the building blocks of cellular membranes, but also play fundamental roles in photosynthesis, protection, environmental and cellular communication, and energy storage. Lipid metabolism is a dynamic and complicated process that includes lipid biosynthesis, transport, accumulation, turnover, and excretion, acting to regulate plant development and tolerance to various environmental stresses. Understanding how lipid metabolism regulates the development and growth in response to the adverse conditions raises an interesting question. Communication between membrane and storage lipids has been observed during the process, for example, membrane degradation accompanied by oil body accumulation. Recently autophagy has been connected with lipid metabolism in plants under stress conditions. Understanding lipid processes is crucial for engineering crops for better agronomic traits such as biomass and stress tolerance/resilience.
This Research Topic is focused on the function and regulation of lipid metabolism during development and stress response in photosynthetic organisms including plants, algae, and cyanobacteria. We invite interested researchers to contribute to the Research Topic with Original Research and Review articles related to the following subjects:
1) Function of lipid metabolism during development and growth:
- Lipid hormones such as steroids regulating development and growth.
- Formation and degradation of lipid droplet, oil body, and plastoglobule.
- Regulatory mechanisms of autophagy in relation to plant growth.
2) Function of lipid metabolism in environmental stress:
- Synthesis and function of lipid messengers under stress.
- Membrane lipid remodeling (e.g. chloroplast and plasma membrane) under stress.
- Biosynthesis and turnover of storage lipids.
- Lipid homeostasis under stress.
- The role of autophagy in lipid remodeling under stress.
3) Biotechnology for engineering lipid-dependent traits in crops and algae:
- Novel techniques for genetic engineering of plant and alga oil products.
- High-throughput methods for lipid or lipid-dependent traits.
- Advanced microscopy for lipid research.
- Polyunsaturated fatty acid synthesis especially w-3 and -6 fatty acids.