神经酸（C24:1，顺-15-二十四碳单烯酸）是一种超长链单不饱和脂肪酸，神经酸是脑神经发育的重要成分，具有重要的药用和保健功效。由于动物源的神经酸资源极其缺乏，近年来发展植物源神经酸资源、增加神经酸的供给已经引起国内外高度关注。蒜头果（Malania oleifera）是我国特有的资源植物，其种子富含神经酸（含量>40%），为植物源神经酸的发掘与利用提供了崭新的途径。本研究围绕蒜头果种子高效累积神经酸的分子机理，通过调查神经酸在蒜头果种子发育过程中的累积规律，结合高通量转录组测序分析，鉴别蒜头果生物合成神经酸的关键功能基因或调控因子，进一步克隆并分别在酵母和油菜中异源表达、分析，解析若干关键功能基因或调控因子在神经酸生物合成过程中的作用机理。该研究不仅为理解植物种子高效累积神经酸的分子机理提供理论依据，而且为旨在提高油料作物种子神经酸含量的遗传改良和基因工程实践提供技术支撑和基因源。

Nervonic acid (C24:1, cis-tetracos-15-enoic acid) is an unusual very-long-chain mono-unsaturated fatty acid. Owing to nervonic acid is an indispensable substrate for the development of brain and neuro, it is commercially a critical feedstock for producing medicinal and nutraceutical productions. Due to its scarcity from animal resources, it draws great attention to developing nervonic acid productions from plant oil resources for increasing the commercial supply in recent years. Malania oleifera, an oilseed plant endemic to south-western China, gives a great channel to discover and develop nervonic acid resources because its seed contains rich nervonic acids (nervonic acid content >40%). In this proposal, we are planning to dissect the molecular mechanism of nervonic acids biosynthesis in developing seeds of M. oleifera, focusing on 1) investigating the pattern of oil accumulation and the biosynthesis trend of nervonic acids with seed development; 2) identifying the critical genes or regulators responsible for nervonic acids biosynthesis using high-throughput transcriptome sequencing method; 3) conducting the cloning and functional analyses for targeted genes by transferring and heterologously over-expressing the target genes in the yeast system and rapeseed plants. Definitely, this study will not only provide novel data, theoretically, to understand the molecule mechanism underlain M. oleifera seeds accumulate rich nervonic acids, but also serve to genetic improvement and genic engineering for producing nervonic acid resources by using biotechnological methods in practice.