Oat (Avena sativa) is unusual in comparison with other cereals since there are varieties with up to 18% oil content. The lipid content and fatty acid composition in different parts of the grain during seed development were characterized in cultivars Freja (6% oil) and Matilda (10% oil), using thin-layer and gas chromatography, and light and electron microscopy. The majority of lipids (86-90%) were found in the endosperm. Ninety-five per cent of the higher oil content of cv. Matilda compared with cv. Freja was due to increased oil content of the endosperm. Up to 84% of the lipids were deposited during the first half of seed development, when seeds where still green with a milky endosperm. Microscopy studies revealed that whereas oil bodies of the embryo and scutellum still contained a discrete shape upon grain maturation, oil bodies of the endosperms fused upon maturation and formed smears of oil.

Cereals accumulate starch in the endosperm as their major energy reserve in the grain. In most cereals the embryo, scutellum, and aleurone layer are high in oil, but these tissues constitute a very small part of the total seed weight. However, in oat (Avena sativa L.) most of the oil in kernels is deposited in the same endosperm cells that accumulate starch. Thus oat endosperm is a desirable model system to study the metabolic switches responsible for carbon partitioning between oil and starch synthesis. A prerequisite for such investigations is the development of an experimental system for oat that allows for metabolic flux analysis using stable and radioactive isotope labelling. An in vitro liquid culture system, developed for detached oat panicles and optimized to mimic kernel composition during different developmental stages in planta, is presented here. This system was subsequently used in analyses of carbon partitioning between lipids and carbohydrates by the administration of 14C-labelled sucrose to two cultivars having different amounts of kernel oil. The data presented in this study clearly show that a higher amount of oil in the high-oil cultivar compared with the medium-oil cultivar was due to a higher proportion of carbon partitioning into oil during seed filling, predominantly at the earlier stages of kernel development.

Summary• Few studies regarding the effects of elevated atmospheric CO 2 concentrations on plant lipid metabolism have been carried out. Here, the effects of elevated CO 2 concentration on lipid composition in mature seeds and in leaves during the diurnal cycle of Arabidopsis thaliana were investigated.• Plants were grown in controlled climate chambers at elevated (800 ppm) and ambient CO 2 concentrations. Lipids were extracted and characterized using thin layer chromatography (TLC) and gas liquid chromatography.• The fatty acid profile of total leaf lipids showed large diurnal variations. However, the elevated CO 2 concentration did not induce any significant differences in the diurnal pattern compared with the ambient concentration. The major chloroplast lipids monogalactosyldiacylglycerol (MGDG) and phosphatidylglycerol (PG) were decreased at elevated CO 2 in favour of phosphatidylcholine (PC) and phosphatidylethanolamine (PE). Elevated CO 2 produced a 25% lower ratio of 16:1trans to 16:0 in PG compared with the ambient concentration. With good nutrient supply, growth at elevated CO 2 did not significantly affect single seed weight, total seed mass, oil yield per seed, or the fatty acid profile of the seeds.• This study has shown that elevated CO 2 induced changes in leaf lipid composition in A. thaliana, whereas seed lipids were unaffected.