Lipid droplets (LDs) in plants have long been viewed as storage depots for neutral lipids that serve as sources of carbon, energy, and lipids for membrane biosynthesis. While much of our knowledge of LD function in plants comes from studies of oilseeds, a recent surge in research on LDs in non-seed cell types has led to an array of new discoveries. It is now clear that both evolutionarily conserved and kingdom-specific mechanisms underlie the biogenesis of LDs in eukaryotes, and proteomics and homology-based approaches have identified new protein players. This review highlights some of these recent discoveries and other new areas of plant LD research, including their role in stress responses and as targets of metabolic engineering strategies aimed at increasing oil content in bioenergy crops.

长期以来，植物中的脂质滴（LDs）一直被视为中性脂质的储存库，这些中性脂质可作为膜生物合成的碳，能量和脂质的来源。尽管我们对植物中LD功能的很多了解来自对油料种子的研究，但最近非种子细胞类型中LDs的研究激增导致了一系列新发现。现在很清楚，在真核生物中LDs的生物发生是进化保守和王国特定机制的基础，蛋白质组学和基于同源性的方法已经确定了新的蛋白质分子。这篇综述重点介绍了植物LD研究的一些最新发现和其他新领域，包括它们在胁迫响应中的作用以及作为旨在提高生物能源作物中油含量的代谢工程策略的目标。