This invention relates to an isolated nucleic acid fragment encoding a plant lecithin: cholesterol acyltransferases. The invention also relates to the construction of a chimeric gene encoding all or a portion of the plant lecithin:cholesterol acyltransferases in sense or antisense orientation, wherein expression of the chimeric gene results in production of altered levels of the plant lecithin:cholesterol acyltransferases in a transformed host cell.