Chapter 15, Problem 29P

Vitamin E is the name for a set of chemically related tocopherols, which are lipid $\text{-}$ soluble compounds with antioxidant properties. Such antioxidants protect cells against the effects of free radicals created as by $\text{-}$ products of energy metabolism in the mitochondrion. Different tocopherols have different biological activities due to differences in their retention by binding to gut proteins during digestion. The one retained at the highest level is $\text{α-}$ tocopherol, while $\text{γ-}$ tocopherol is retained at less than $10\%$ of that efficiency. In, Arabidopsis $\text{α-}$ tocopherolis the most abundant tocopherol in leaves, while tocopherolis the most abundant in seeds. An enzyme encoded by the VIE $4$ gene can convert $\text{γ-}$ tocopherolto $\text{α-}$ tocopherol. How would you create an Arabidopsis plant that produces high levels of $\text{α-tocopherol}$ in the seeds?