The present invention relates generally to the field of plant molecular biology and relates to plants having a modified lipid metabolism and to methods for making such modified plants. In particular, the invention provides modified plants and parts thereof, including seeds having an increased level of triacylglycerol (TAG), by means of a seed-specific expression in seed tissues during seed filling of a nucleic acid encoding a translocator protein (TSPO) in said modified plants or parts thereof. The invention further relates to methods for modulating lipid metabolism in plants and for producing plants with a modified lipid metabolism. The invention also provides conscrtucts, vectors and host cells useful i the methods of the invention, and further relates to products obtained from the modified plants.