Ensuring an adequate food supply and enough energy to sustainably support future global populations will require enhanced productivity from plants. Oilseeds can help address these needs; but the fatty acid composition of seed oils is not always optimal, and higher yields are required to meet growing demands. Quantitative approaches including metabolic flux analysis can provide insights on unexpected metabolism (i.e., when metabolism is different than in a textbook) and can be used to guide engineering efforts; however, as metabolism is context-specific, it changes with tissue type, local environment, and development. This review describes recent insights from metabolic flux analysis in oilseeds and indicates engineering opportunities based on emerging topics and developing technologies that will aid quantitative understanding of metabolism and enable efforts to produce more oil. We also suggest that investigating the key regulators of fatty acid biosynthesis, such as transcription factors, and exploring metabolic signals like phytohormones in greater depth through flux analysis, could open new pathways for advancing genetic engineering and breeding strategies to enhance oil crop production.

中文翻译：

---

代谢通量分析以增加种子中的油


确保充足的食物供应和足够的能源以可持续地支持未来的全球人口，需要提高植物的生产力。油籽可以帮助满足这些需求;但种子油的脂肪酸组成并不总是最佳的，需要更高的产量来满足不断增长的需求。包括代谢通量分析在内的定量方法可以提供有关意外代谢的见解（即，当代谢与教科书中的不同时），并可用于指导工程工作;然而，由于代谢是特定于环境的，因此它会随着组织类型、局部环境和发育而变化。这篇综述描述了油籽代谢通量分析的最新见解，并指出了基于新兴主题和开发技术的工程机会，这些技术将有助于定量理解新陈代谢并努力生产更多的油。我们还建议研究脂肪酸生物合成的关键调节因子，例如转录因子，并通过通量分析更深入地探索植物激素等代谢信号，可以为推进基因工程和育种策略以提高油料作物生产开辟新的途径。