Dr. Aruna Kilaru, associate professor of biological sciences at East Tennessee State University, and her research team have been working on a new way to combat cardiovascular disease as Americans leading cause of death by studying how to produce more good, monounsaturated fats found in plant oils, often used in cooking, and how to make them more abundant for future generations by using plants that are otherwise genetically deficient.

Saturated fats, or animals fats, increase bad cholesterol, leading to clogging of arteries. Replacing that diet with monounsaturated oils will decrease the risk of heart diseases, said Dr. Kilaru. As such, among various oils, monounsaturated oils such as those in olive and avocado fruits are considered to be heart-healthy.

Saturation refers to the lack of any double bonds in the fatty acid chain while unsaturation refers to the number of double bonds present; a single double bond is referred to monounsaturated and many as polyunsaturated.

Dr. Kilaru noted humans and other mammals lack some of the enzymes necessary to add initial double bonds to fatty acids, making plant oils a critical source of healthy oils. When consumed, these can be converted into other polyunsaturated fatty acids necessary to regulate health and development.

Vegetable oil accounts for 25 percent of human dietary calories and its demand is expected to double by 2030. Increasing production of nutritionally rich oils has become a necessity, added Kilaru.

Having already identified a regulator they believe to be responsible for high amounts of oil in avocado, Dr. Kilaru said ETSU research has made quite a bit of progress in understanding this oil biosynthesis. Now, thanks in part to funds from a recent $200,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the work will continue.

We have already identified one regulator that is likely responsible for high amounts of oil in avocado, said Kilaru. This funding will support continued research on the project by one of our Ph.D. students, Jyoti Behera, for two years and also the research expenses associated with further characterization of the mechanisms by which this novel regulator functions.

Plant oils, mostly stored in plant tissues as triacylglycerols, are not only an important source for human and animal nutrition, but also play important roles in the oil industry and renewable energy sources.

Added Kilaru, There is great diversity in plants tissues with regard to how much and what kind of oil they can synthesize and store. Although biochemists understand how storage oils are made, we do not fully understand what genes are responsible for dictating the content and composition in oil in plants.

Kilaru said her interest in this area of lipid biochemistry research was formed during her postdoctoral work.

I was fascinated by the diverse amounts and types of oils various plant tissues can make. For example, oil palm fruit stores its sugars from photosynthesis in the form of about 90 percent oil in the fleshy part of the fruit while its sister plant, date palm, reserves its energy as 90 percent sugar. I found these distinct abilities of plants both puzzling and fascinating. This work initiated at Michigan State University led to my further interest in using avocado as a system to understand its ability to make high amounts of monounsaturated oleic acid.

She points not only to avocados but also olives. Both synthesize and store heart-healthy, nutritionally rich monounsaturated oils, the good fats, at approximately 60-70 percent in their fleshy fruit but with negligible amounts in their seeds. Palm oil, on the other hand, contains 80 percent saturated fat in its seeds while the fleshy fruit contains only approximately 50 percent saturated oil.

In our lab, we are using avocado as a model system to identify the key regulators of oil content and composition, said Kilaru. Once we identify these key regulators and fully understand their mechanisms, we expect to utilize them to enhance production of nutritionally rich oil in other plants, as well, for human consumption.

The end result of the research could mean a healthier global population.

For more information on the research project, contact Dr. Kilaru at kilaru@etsu.edu or 423-439-5601. More information on the ETSU Department of Biological Sciences can be found at etsu.edu/cas/biology.

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ETSU research leads the way in study to increase diversity of heart-healthy plant oils - Johnson City Press (subscription)