Chaofu Lu Chaofu Lu Assistant Professor
Ph.D. Institute of Genetics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1998
Office: 314 Plant BioScience Building (406-994-5741)
Lab: 332 Plant BioScience Building (406-994-7865)
Fax: 406-994-7600
Email: clu@montana.edu
Many plant species including Arabidopsis thaliana store triacylglycerols (TAGs) in their seeds as carbon reserve. These TAGs are the major source of energy and carbon material that support seedling development during the early stages of plant life. Vegetable oils from soybean (Glycine max), canola (Brassica napus or B. rapa), sunflower (Helianthus annuus) and many other oilseed crops are also an important source of human diet or industrial applications such as biofuels, biolubricants, nylon precursors and detergent feedstocks. My research goal is to make contributions to our understanding of genetic and biochemical factors that control fatty acid and lipid biosynthesis in oilseed plants.
Camelina (Camelina sativa L. Crantz.), usually known as false-flaxor gold-of-pleasure, is an ancient oilseed crop. It has received much attention recently due to the low-input production cost that is particularly desirable for industrial applications. We are using traditional and modern genetic approaches to improve camelina characters, especially seed oil fatty acid compositions, in order to develop an economical oilseed crop for biofuel (Biodiesel) and biomaterial production. Since camelina is a close relative to Arabidopsis, it is especially suitable for “translational” research to produce novel biotechnological compounds.
Refereed Journal Articles
Julie Burgal, Jay Shockey, Chaofu Lu, John Dyer, Tony Larson, Ian Graham, and John Browse, 2008. Metabolic engineering of hydroxy fatty acid production in plants: RcDGAT2 drives dramatic increases in ricinoleate levels in seed oil. Plant Biotechnology Journal (in press).
Chaofu Lu and Jinling Kang, 2008. Generation of transgenic plants of a potential oilseed crop Camelina sativa by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Plant Cell Reports 27: 273-278.
Gennidakis S, Rao S, Greenham K, Uhrig R, O’Leary B, Snedden W, Lu C, Plaxton W, 2007. Bacterial- and plant-type phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase polypeptides interact in the hetero-oligomeric Class-2 PEPC complex of developing castor oil seeds. The Plant Journal 52: 839-849.
Chaofu Lu, Jim Wallis and John Browse, 2007. Analysis of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from a full-length cDNA library of developing castor seeds. BMC Plant Biology 7 (1):42 [Highly accessed article]
Chaofu Lu, Martin Fulda, Jim Wallis, John Browse, 2006. A high-throughput screen for genes from castor that boost hydroxy fatty acid accumulation in seed oils of transgenic Arabidopsis. The Plant Journal 45, 847-856. [Highlighted research in Arabidopsis of 2006 selected by the Multinational Arabidopsis Steering Committee]
Chaofu Lu, Shen Bayon de Noyer, DH Hobbs, J Kang, Y Wen, D Krachtus, MJ Hills, 2003. Expression pattern of diacylglycerol acyltransferase-1, an enzyme involved in triacylglycerol biosynthesis, in Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant Molecular Biology 52(1):31-41.
Chaofu Lu, Matthew J. Hills, 2002. Arabidopsis mutants deficient in diacylglycerol acyltransferase display increased sensitivity to abscisic acid, sugars, and osmotic stress during germination and seedling development. Plant Physiology 129 (3): 1352-1358.
Hobbs DH, Lu Chaofu, Hills MJ, 1999. Cloning of a cDNA encoding diacylglycerol acyltransferase from Arabidopsis thaliana and its functional expression. FEBS Letters 452 (3): 145-149.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
Chaofu Lu and Jinling Kang. Genetic modification of fatty acid composition of seed oils of Camelina sativa, a potential oilseed crop. National Plant Lipid Cooperative. Fallen Leaf Lake, California. June 2007.
Chaofu Lu. Genomic approaches to engineering novel industrial fatty acids in oilseed plants. 98th American Oil Chemists Society annual meeting. Quebec City, Canada, May 2007 (Invited)
Chaofu Lu and John Browse, 2005. A high-throughput screen of genes from castor that boost hydroxy fatty acids accumulation in seed oils of transgenic Arabidopsis. National Plant Lipid Cooperative. Fallen Leaf Lake, California. June 2005.
Lu Chaofu, Fulda M, Wallis J and Browse J. Construction of a full-length cDNA library from developing seeds of castor plant (Ricinus communis L.). National Plant Lipid Cooperative. Fallen Leaf Lake, California. June 2003.
Hills MJ, Hobbs DH, Kang J and Lu C. Diacylglycerol acyltransferase 1 of Arabidopsis thaliana. XVth International Symposium on Plant Lipids. Okazaki, Japan. 2003
Lu Chaofu, Kang J, Hobbs DH, Hills MJ. Diacylglycerol acyltransferase activity and triacylglycerol biosynthesis in Arabidopsis. ASPB annual meeting, Prividence, RI. 2001.
Hills, MJ, Lu C, Hobbs, DH. Oil synthesis and diacylglycerol acyltransferase in Brassica napus and Arabidopsis thaliana. 23rd World Congress and Exhibition of the International Society for Fat research. Brighton, United Kingdom. 1999.
Last updated - 08/01/2008