ABSTRACT

Sesame oil, similar to most plant seed oils, comprises mainly triacylglycerols (>95%), which are stored in oil bodies, specialized organelles encapsulated by a layer of proteins on their surface. In the past decade, three classes of proteins, oleosin, caleosin, and steroleosin, were identified in sesame oil bodies, and gene families encoding these proteins have been cloned (Chen et al. 1999; Lin et al. 2002; Lin and Tzen 2004; Tai et al. 2002). Sesame oil bodies and their surface proteins have been employed as universal models in studies of diverse plant species. Recently, various types of artificial sesame oil bodies have been successfully reconstituted, and their potential applications are currently being explored and evaluated.