ABSTRACT
Our laboratory is engaged in the investigation of how plant lipid metabolism is regulated. The biosynthesis of fatty acids de novo as well as many of the reactions leading to fatty acid modification and glycerolipid biosynthesis have been characterized at the enzymological level. Terpenoid biosynthesis has also been intensively studied, especially in plants that produce "essential" oils. It is beyond the scope of this chapter to provide detail on all of these metabolic pathways and the appropriate assay conditions or protein purification procedures necessary to study this expansive research area in plant biology. Therefore, emphasis will be placed on those in vitro and in vivo methods that either the author is directly familiar with, or for which there is currently great interest in the plant lipid community to pursue. There has also been an increasing use of molecular techniques to examine the regulation of plant lipid metabolism.
