Identification of Plant Transcription Factors that Play a Role in Triacylglycerol Biosynthesis

This work identifies transcription factors (TF) controlling triacylglycerol (TAG) synthesis and accumulation in plant tissues. TAG plays vital role in plants and are used by humans. Most plants accumulate oil in the seed, but some species accumulate oil in other tissues. The Wrinkled1 (WRI1) TF has been shown to regulate oil accumulation in multiple species and tissues. Here, four WRI homologues in avocado were identified, their phylogeny was examined and three of them were cloned into expression vectors for further characterization. However, WRI1 likely does not act alone in regulation of TAG accumulation in plants. Additional candidate TFs were identified by using transcriptome data from a variety of species, and cloned into expression vectors. Future studies will be able to use this information to better understand regulation of TAG accumulation, which will allow increased oil accumulation in plants for various human uses. 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my advisor and thesis committee chair Dr. Aruna Kilaru for her support during my time in the lab. I would also like to thank my committee members Dr. Lev Yampolsky and Dr. Cecilia McIntosh for their valuable guidance and input on the thesis project. I would also like to thank my fellow lab members for their help and assistance within the lab. I thank Dr. John Ohlrogge, Michigan State University, for providing the transcriptome data, and also acknowledge all the other individuals who worked to collect these data. I would like to thank Dr.