•The growing degree days from sowing to maturity for all genotypes were determined at 1200 °C d.•Three camelina genotypes had high yield potential (787-15, 787-08 and 787-05).•Oil yield was highest ...in genotype 787-15 (0.93 Mg ha−1).•Three main genotype groups with different seed oil composition were identified.
Camelina (Camelina sativa (L.) Crantz) is an oilseed crop of the family Brassicaceae. In the past, camelina was used mainly in food production. However, the species also has numerous industrial applications. The aim of this study was to determine the agronomic performance (seed, straw and oil yield) and the qualitative parameters (oil and protein content, fatty acid composition) of 10 spring camelina genotypes. The experiment was conducted from 2015 to 2018 in north-eastern Poland. The phenological phases, seed and biomass yield, and the composition of spring camelina seeds, including oil and protein content and fatty acid composition, were determined. The cumulative growing degree days from sowing to maturity for all genotypes were determined at 1200 °C d. Seed yield ranged from 1.70 Mg ha−1 dry matter (d.m.) in genotype 787-15 to 2.21 Mg ha−1 d.m. in genotype 887. Seed oil content was determined at 39.3–42.2% d.m. Oil yield was high in genotype 787-15 (0.93 Mg ha−1) and low in genotype 887 (0.69 Mg ha−1). Three main genotype groups were identified during the study. The first group was characterized by a high content of monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) and a low content of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). These genotypes were abundant in linolenic acid. The second group was composed of genotypes with a high content of PUFAs and a low content of MUFAs and saturated fatty acids (SFAs). These genotypes were characterized by high oil yields and a high content of linoleic acid. The third group was characterized by a high content of SFAs, a high content of PUFAs and a low content of MUFAs. The tested spring camelina genotypes had a high yield potential (in particular genotypes 787-15, 787-08 and 787-05) and were good candidates for commercial cultivation in the temperate climate of Central Europe. Genotype 887 cannot be recommended for cultivation due to its low seed yield, low oil content and low oil yield.
Camelina or false flax (Camelina sativa) is an emerging crop that is currently considered one of the most promising feedstock for production of vegetable oil-based liquid biofuels: biodiesel and jet ...biofuel. Originally, camelina comes from the East European region, where this crop used to be widely cultivated before it was substituted with other oilseed crops, such as rapeseed, sunflower, etc. Due to increasing interest in biofuel production and sustainable agriculture, camelina has re-emerged as a viable oil-rich crop of multiple purposes. However, camelina varieties are not free from some undesirable traits, one of which is low yields. Over the recent years, extensive research efforts have been dedicated to breeding and improving this crop although this work has been restricted by limited genetic diversity of camelina. This limitation can be overcome by using unexploited germplasm, which previously was not involved into the camelina breeding process. In present study, we aimed to evaluate the productivity potential of unexploited Ukrainian spring camelina varieties and to perform comprehensive estimation of their suitability for use as oil feedstock for biodiesel production. The productivity data of all nine existing Ukrainian varieties of spring camelina was assessed for the 2001–19 period, based on the available data. It has been established that average productivity of the analyzed cultivars is 1756 kg/ha in the Ukrainian Forest-Steppe zone and 1146 kg/ha in the Steppe zone. The latter is characterized by a dryer climate, which significantly impacts spring camelina seed yields and thus their oil outputs, which are crucial for biofuel production. Potential rates of FAME- and FAEE-based biodiesel production have been evaluated. The conducted comprehensive analysis suggests that cultivation of spring camelina for biofuel production purposes can be more sustainable and feasible in the Forest-Steppe zone, rather than in the Steppe zone. Finally, a brief investigation of potential obstacles, impacting the production efficiency and feasibility of different biodiesel types, has also been conducted, as well as potential solutions were proposed for them. The obtained results create strong background for further efficient camelina breeding and for analyses of techno-economic feasibility of production camelina-based biofuels in Eastern Europe and specifically in Ukraine.
•Performance of unexploited Ukrainian camelina germplasm was first evaluated.•Productivity of Ukrainian varieties of camelina was assessed for the 2001–19 period.•The average camelina yields were 1.76 t/ha in Forest-Steppe and 1.15 t/ha in Steppe.•Camelina oil yields depends more on seed yield, rather than seed oil content.•Biodiesel production rates were 726.53 and 374.96 L/ha in Forest-Steppe and Steppe.
•A high heritability of flowering time suggests breeding feasibility.•Genome-wide association study identified 20 SNPs related to floral development.•Whole-genome prediction indicated a ...low-to-moderate predictive ability.
Camelina sativa is a promising oilseed and industrial crop that benefits sustainable food, feed and fuel industries. Early flowering is critical for local adaptation as well as maximizing yield in Camelina sativa. Even though the preliminary data indicated wide variation in flowering time in the spring camelina germplasm, our understanding of underlying genes and their roles in regulating flower development is still limited. The current study combined genotypic data and flowering time from the spring panel, followed by genome-wide association study (GWAS) and whole-genome prediction to identify significant trait-associated markers and evaluate the predictive capability of the entire marker set. The analysis of phenotypic data showed significant genotypic and environmental effects on flowering time. A high heritability of 0.893 in flowering time suggests effectiveness of breeding early flowering camelina varieties. The GWAS analysis identified 20 significant trait-associated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that colocalized within/or near a variety of transcription factors (e.g. SUPPRESSOR of PHYA-1/SPA1, BES1-INTERACTING MYC-LIKE 1/BIM1) or protein families containing specific functional domains (e.g. CCCH zinc finger protein family and B3-DNA binding domain containing protein family). These transcription factors were known to interact with key regulatory genes in the four major pathways (i.e. photoperiod, autonomous, vernalization and gibberellic acid pathways) to cooperatively regulate floral transition in arabidopsis. Whole-genome prediction showed a low-to-moderate predictive ability (0.559) to improve early flowering trait in camelina. This study is the first step for future in-depth exploration and genetic improvements of flower development and timing in camelina for breeding.
Triacylglycerol (TAG) is an energy-rich reserve in plant seeds that is composed of glycerol esters with three fatty acids. Since TAG can be used as a feedstock for the production of biofuels and ...bio-chemicals, producing TAGs in vegetative tissue is an alternative way of meeting the increasing demand for its usage. The
(
) gene is a well-established key transcriptional regulator involved in the upregulation of fatty acid biosynthesis in developing seeds. WRI1s from
and several other crops have been previously employed for increasing TAGs in seed and vegetative tissues. In the present study, we first identified three functional
genes (
, and
) from the
oil crop and tested their ability to induce TAG synthesis in leaves. The amino acid sequences of
exhibited more than 90% identity with those of
. The transcript levels of the three
genes showed higher expression levels in developing seeds than in vegetative and floral tissues. When the
, or
was introduced into
loss-of-function mutant, the fatty acid content was restored to near wild-type levels and percentages of the wrinkled seeds were remarkably reduced in the transgenic lines relative to
mutant line. In addition, the fluorescent signals of the enhanced yellow fluorescent protein (eYFP) fused to the
genes were observed in the nuclei of
leaf epidermal cells. Nile red staining indicated that the transient expression of
, or
caused an enhanced accumulation of oil bodies in
leaves. The levels of TAGs was higher by approximately 2.5- to 4.0-fold in
fresh leaves expressing
genes than in the control leaves. These results suggest that the three
WRI1s can be used as key transcriptional regulators to increase fatty acids in biomass.
The nutritional value of Brassica seed meals is reduced by the presence of glucosinolates, which are toxic compounds involved in plant defense. Mutation of the genes encoding two glucosinolate ...transporters (GTRs) eliminated glucosinolates from Arabidopsis thaliana seeds, but translation of loss-of-function phenotypes into Brassica crops is challenging because Brassica is polyploid. We mutated one of seven and four of 12 GTR orthologs and reduced glucosinolate levels in seeds by 60-70% in two different Brassica species (Brassica rapa and Brassica juncea). Reduction in seed glucosinolates was stably inherited over multiple generations and maintained in field trials of two mutant populations at three locations. Successful translation of the gtr loss-of-function phenotype from model plant to two Brassica crops suggests that our transport engineering approach could be broadly applied to reduce seed glucosinolate content in other oilseed crops, such as Camelina sativa or Crambe abyssinica.
The aim of this study was to determine the effect of nitrogen (0, 40, 80, 120, 160 kg ha−1) and sulfur (0, 15, 30 kg ha−1) fertilization on the energy efficiency ratio of spring camelina produced in ...north-eastern Poland. The energy inputs in the production of camelina ranged from 5.1 (without nitrogen and sulfur fertilization) to 17.7 GJ ha−1 (160 kg N ha−1 and 30 kg S ha−1). The energy output of camelina produced without nitrogen or sulfur fertilizers was determined at 28.38 (seeds) and 61.53 GJ ha−1 (seeds and straw). High rates of nitrogen and sulfur fertilization increased the energy output of camelina seeds and biomass by up to 186% and 155%, respectively. Nitrogen fertilizer applied at 120 kg ha−1 decreased the energy efficiency ratio by 49% in seeds and by 55% in total biomass. The application of sulfur increased the energy efficiency ratio of seeds by 1–8%, and the energy efficiency ratio of total biomass by 1–5%. Sulfur enhanced the energy efficiency ratio of camelina in production technologies with high rates of nitrogen fertilization.
•N and S fertilization increased energy inputs by 343% and 2–3%, respectively.•N and S fertilization increased the energy output of seeds by 71% and 5%, respectively.•N and S fertilization increased the energy output of biomass by 52% and 3%, respectively.•N fertilization decreased the energy efficiency ratio by 49% (seeds) and by 55% (biomass).•S fertilization increased the energy efficiency ratio by 1–8% (seeds) and by 1–5% (biomass).
To overcome the drawbacks of synthetic films in food packaging industry, researchers are turned to natural bio-based edible films enriched with various plant additives. In current study chitosan ...blend films were produced by incorporating Camelina sativa seed oil at varying concentrations to chitosan matrix. The chitosan blend films were characterized both physicochemically (structural, morphological, thermal, optical and mechanical) and biologically (antimicrobial and antioxidant activity). The incorporation of C. sativa seed oil notably enhanced thermal stability, antioxidative, anti-quorum sensing and antimicrobial activity. Except elongation at break, other mechanical properties of the blend films were not affected by incorporation of C. sativa seed oil. The surface morphology of blend films was recorded as slightly rough, non-porous and fibre-free surface. As it was expected the optical transmittance in visible region was gradually decreased with increasing fraction of seed oil. Interestingly the hydrophilicity of the blend films revealed a swift increase which can be explained by the formation of micelle between glycerol and Tween 40 in blend films. This study provides valuable information for C. sativa seed oil to be used as a blending ingredient in chitosan film technology.
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•Chitosan blend films were produced by incorporating C. sativa seed oil.•Films were characterized both physicochemically and biologically.•Incorporation of C. sativa seed oil notably enhanced thermal stability of films.•Antioxidant, anti-quorum sensing and antimicrobial activity were also improved.
Modifying oilseeds to obtain a desired fatty acid composition is often necessary to enable use as feedstocks for specific applications such as food processing, biofuels, or biolubricants. A mutant ...population of camelina (Camelina sativa), an emerging specialty oilseed crop, was screened by high-throughput gas chromatography for lines with altered seed oil fatty acid composition. By leveraging knowledge of fatty acid synthesis in Arabidopsis thaliana, mutations in orthologs of FATTY ACID ELONGASE1 (FAE1), FATTY ACID DESATURASE2 (FAD2), FATTY ACID DESATURASE3 (FAD3), and β-KETO-ACYL-ACP SYNTHASE II (KASII; FAB1) were identified. The mutations altered conserved amino acid residues in the encoded proteins. The ability of the mutations in FAE1, FAD2 and FAD3 to affect enzyme function was demonstrated by comparing in vivo activities of wild-type and mutant alleles in yeast. In addition, expression of wild-type cDNA in camelina complemented fatty acid phenotypes of these mutants. As camelina has a hexaploid genome, the effect of a mutation in one of the three homeologs for each gene resulted in no or less severe growth phenotypes compared to similar mutations in Arabidopsis. Mid-oleic oils with nearly 40 % oleic acid and reduced very long-chain (≤C20) fatty acid content were obtained by crossing to obtain a fae1c/fad2a/fae1a/fad3a quadruple mutant. Little effect on total seed oil content was observed in the stacked mutant line. Finally, the resulting mid-oleic acid oil had improved oxidative stability due to reductions in polyunsaturated fatty acid content, increasing its utility for biofuels and other applications.
Cyclopropane fatty acids (CPA) are useful feedstocks for biofuels and bioproducts such as lubricants and biodiesel. Our goal is to pinpoint factors that can facilitate the accumulation of CPA in seed ...triacylglycerol, TAG (storage oil). We hypothesized that the poor metabolism of CPA through the TAG biosynthetic network could be overcome by addition of enzyme activities from species that naturally accumulate CPA in their seed oil, such as lychee (Lychi chinesis) which contains approximately 40% CPA in TAG. Our previous work on engineering CPA accumulation in crop and model plants identified a metabolic bottleneck between phosphatidylcholine (PC), the site of CPA biosynthesis, diacylglycerol (DAG) and TAG. In this work we report the cloning and heterologous expression in Camelina sativa of a lychee phosphatidylcholine:diacylglycerol cholinephosphotransferase (PDCT), which catalyzes the transfer of the phosphocholine headgroup from PC to DAG. Camelina sativa lines co-expressing LcPDCT and Escherichia coli cyclopropane synthase (EcCPS) showed up to 50% increase of CPA in mature seed, relative to the EcCPS background. Stereospecific lipid compositional analysis showed that the expression of LcPDCT strongly reduced the level of C18:1 substrate at PC-sn-1 and PC-sn-2 i.e., the sites of CPA synthesis, while the levels of CPA increased in PC-sn-2, DAG-sn-1 and DAG-sn-2 and both sn-1/ 3 and sn-2 positions in TAG. Taken together these data suggest that addition of PDCT activity facilitates more efficient movement of CPA from PC to DAG and establishes LcPDCT as a useful factor to combine with others to enhance CPA accumulation in plant seed oil.
SUMMARY
Hexaploid camelina (Camelina sativa; 2n = 6x = 40) is an important oilseed crop closely related to Arabidopsis. Compared to other polyploid crops, the origin of the three camelina subgenomes ...has begun to be unveiled only recently. While phylogenomic studies identified the diploid C. hispida (2n = 2x = 14) as the paternal genome of C. sativa, the maternal donor genome remained unknown. Because the chromosomes assigned to a putative maternal genome resembled those of diploid C. neglecta (2n = 12), a tetraploid C. neglecta‐like genome (2n = 4x = 26) was hypothesized to be the likely maternal ancestor of the hexaploid crop. Here we report the chromosome‐level structure of the predicted tetraploid Camelina genome identified among genotypes previously classified together as C. microcarpa and referred to here as C. intermedia. Detailed cytogenomic analysis of the tetraploid genome revealed high collinearity with two maternally inherited subgenomes of the hexaploid C. sativa. The identification of the missing donor tetraploid genome provides new insights into the reticulate evolutionary history of the Camelina polyploid complex and allows us to postulate a comprehensive evolutionary model for the genus. The herein elucidated origin of the C. sativa genome opens the door for subsequent genome modifications and resynthesis of the allohexaploid camelina genome.
Significance Statement
Hexaploid camelina (Camelina sativa; 2n = 6× = 40) is an important oilseed crop. While the diploid C. hispida (2n = 2× = 14) was identified as the paternal genome of C. sativa, the maternal donor genome remained unknown. Here we report the chromosome‐level structure of C. intermedia ‐ the predicted tetraploid (2n = 4× = 26) donor genome of the hexamploid camelina.
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