About the Cover
On the Cover: Jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis) is unusual in that its seed storage lipids are wax esters rather than triglycerides. Two key enzymes, fatty acyl-CoA reductase and wax synthase, produce these waxes from very-long-chain acyl-CoA substrates (inset). Metz et al. (pp. 635-644) and Lardizabal et al. (pp. 645-655) describe the cloning of cDNAs encoding these enzymes and characterize the effects of expressing them in developing seeds of transgenic plants. Expression of both cDNAs in Arabidopsis (along with a third gene to increase production of very-long-chain substrates) yielded plants in which up to 70% (by weight) of the seed lipids were wax esters.
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Copyright © 2007 by the American Society of Plant Biologists
