Mutagenesis of a plastidial lysophosphatidic acid acyltransferase

A combination of site-directed and random mutagenesis generated sequence variants of a plastidial lysophosphatidic acid acyltransferase. Alanine substitutions of residues present within two conserved motifs including the putative catalytic histidine resulted in a loss of acyltransferase activity assessed as complementation competence. Substitutions at five sites within the central core resulted in reduced or loss of activity. Truncation mutants reveal that sequences in the C-terminal moiety are essential for function.