Expression of fatty acid and triacylglycerol synthesis genes in interspecific hybrids of oil palm

• Published in: Scientific reports 2020-10, Vol.10 (1), p.16296-16296, Article 16296
• Main Authors: Ting, Ngoot-Chin, Sherbina, Katrina, Khoo, Jia-Shiun, Kamaruddin, Katialisa, Chan, Pek-Lan, Chan, Kuang-Lim, Halim, Mohd Amin Ab, Sritharan, Kandha, Yaakub, Zulkifli, Mayes, Sean, Massawe, Festo, Chang, Peter L., Nuzhdin, Sergey V., Sambanthamurthi, Ravigadevi, Singh, Rajinder
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 631/208/199; 631/208/212/2019; 631/208/480; 631/208/514/1949; Arecaceae - genetics; Arecaceae - metabolism; Biosynthesis; Developmental stages; Elaeis guineensis; Elaeis oleifera; Fatty acids; Fatty Acids - metabolism; Gene expression; Gene Expression Profiling; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; Genes, Plant - genetics; Humanities and Social Sciences; Hybridization, Genetic - genetics; Hybrids; Interspecific; Isoforms; Metabolic Networks and Pathways - genetics; multidisciplinary; Palmitic acid; Phenotypes; Quantitative trait loci; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Triglycerides - metabolism
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-73170-5

Evaluation of transcriptome data in combination with QTL information has been applied in many crops to study the expression of genes responsible for specific phenotypes. In oil palm, the mesocarp oil extracted from E. oleifera × E. guineensis interspecific hybrids is known to have lower palmitic acid (C16:0) content compared to pure African palms. The present study demonstrates the effectiveness of transcriptome data in revealing the expression profiles of genes in the fatty acid (FA) and triacylglycerol (TAG) biosynthesis processes in interspecific hybrids. The transcriptome assembly yielded 43,920 putative genes of which a large proportion were homologous to known genes in the public databases. Most of the genes encoding key enzymes involved in the FA and TAG synthesis pathways were identified. Of these, 27, including two candidate genes located within the QTL associated with C16:0 content, showed differential expression between developmental stages, populations and/or palms with contrasting C16:0 content. Further evaluation using quantitative real-time PCR revealed that differentially expressed patterns are generally consistent with those observed in the transcriptome data. Our results also suggest that different isoforms are likely to be responsible for some of the variation observed in FA composition of interspecific hybrids.