Your 1^st assignment of your three assignments/quizzes is to describe what biochemical changes would need to be accomplished to convert 50% of the starch normally made in corn (Zea mays) seeds to tri-tetracosenoin (24:1 containing triacylglycerol or oil) as another possible source of biodiesel.  Include all metabolic steps that would need to be considered including subcellular locations.  Cite at least two relevant (and relatively current) publications to justify your answer.  

This assignment is worth 20 points and is due by the start of class Tuesday, March 25.

The following question was asked by a student in black  and my answer is in green:

I have few question about the first Assignment that you give to us

- must we consider starch like the precursor of tri - tetracoseinon or must we find an alternative pathway that use one of the precursor of starch to biosithityse the fatty acid?

The way the question is stated one might literally interpret it as Starch --> --> Tri - tetracosenoin

Answering the question this way would be fine but what would make more sense physiologically and actually what I had in mind was Photosynthate --> --> Tri - tetracosenoin or Starch.

- must we find some articole about the whole pathway or can we find some pubblication about part of it?

You can cite information covering part of the pathway in question providing this is some of the most complete information easily available. FYI to my knowledge no one has achieved Tri - tetracosenoin [this just might be a desirable biodiesel form] so in searching you will probably want to use more generic terms like triglyceride, triacylglycerol and oil in addition to Tri - tetracosenoin. However as you already likely know using key relevant references in some of the class reading assignments as a launching point for other related literature is an effective way to target such information. As such it would be useful if you summarize your literature searching results in your answer.

- can we demostre the pathway only basing our theori on supposition?

Use available, quotable, information as much as possible and theory or educated guesses where good information is lacking.

An example of an answer given full credit for this question is posted.