Differential abundance analysis of mesocarp protein from high- and low-yielding oil palms associates non-oil biosynthetic enzymes to lipid biosynthesis

Abstract

BackgroundThe oil palm Elaeis guineensis Jacq. which produces the highest yield per unit land area of the oil crops is the most important commercial oil crop in South East Asia. The fleshy mesocarp of oil palm fruit, where oil is mostly derived from, contains up to 90 % dry weight of oil (one of the most concentrated in plant tissues). Hence, there is attention given to gain insights into the processes of oil deposition in this oil rich tissue. For that purpose, two-dimensional differential gel electrophoresis (DIGE) coupled with western assays, were used here to analyze differential protein levels in genetically-related high-and low-yielding oil palm mesocarps.ResultsFrom the DIGE comparative analysis in combination with western analysis, 41 unique differentially accumulated proteins were discovered. Functional categorization of these proteins placed them in the metabolisms of lipid, carbohydrate, amino acids, energy, structural proteins, as well as in other functions. In particular, higher abundance of fructose-1,6-biphosphate aldolase combined with reduced level of triosephosphate isomerase and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase may be indicative of important flux balance changes in glycolysis, while amino acid metabolism also appeared to be closely linked with oil yield.ConclusionsForty-one proteins in several important biological pathways were identified as exhibiting differential in abundance at critical oil production stages. These confirm that oil yield is a complex trait involving the regulation of genes in multiple biological pathways. The results also provide insights into key control points of lipid biosynthesis in oil palm and can assist in the development of genetic markers for use in oil palm breeding programmes.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12953-015-0085-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Key glycolytic branch influences mesocarp oil content in oil palm

“…Our Group previously found differential in gene expression as well as protein and metabolite levels in glycolysis pathway were associated with mesocarp oil content 3 , 4 , 16 . In this study, we validated the oil palm glycolytic gene function through loss-of-function mutants in Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model system.…”

“…The glycolytic pathway has been proposed as one of the key biosynthetic steps for supplying precursors and controlling the rate of oil biosynthesis in oil palm mesocarp tissue based on previous studies 2 . Higher protein expression level of fructose-1,6-bisphosphate aldolase (FBA) combined with a reduced level of triose phosphate isomerase (TPI) and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) with associated metabolite concentration changes in high-yielding oil palm plants suggested important flux balance changes in glycolysis are closely linked with oil yield 3 . In particular, Teh and co-workers 4 noted an apparent divergence of carbon flux towards glycerol-3-phosphate (G3P) preceding and during lipid biosynthesis in the fruit of high-yielding palms.…”

Review: Omics and Strategic Yield Improvement in Oil Crops

“…Omics technologies have been used to investigate the differences in biochemical regulation that distinguish the highest-yielding palms from average performers [108][109][110]. Experiments were carried out to study the differences between genetically related high-yielding palms (HY: 10-12 MT oil/ha) and lower-yielding palms (LY: 4-7 MT oil/ha) planted in the same location [108].…”

“…Among these candidates, many genes were found to be involved in oil biosynthesis, triacylglycerol, glycolysis and tricarboxylic acid (TCA) pathways as well as nitrogen assimilation. Differential abundance analysis of mesocarp protein from high-and low-yielding oil palms associated non-oil biosynthetic enzymes to lipid biosynthesis [109,110]. For example, the cytochrome c oxidase subunit 6 was found to be expressed highly in the high-yielding palm mesocarp, but its expression remained unchanged in the low-yielding fruits.…”

All-in-one comprehensive extraction of metabolites, proteins and ribonucleic acids for the rapid analysis of oil palm systems biology

“…Thus, improving oil palm varieties via its genetics information is crucial and need to be materialized by advanced biotechnology (Kushairi et al, 2019). Omics-based studies have been fully endeavored in oil palm research with extensive discoveries of transcripts (Low et al, 2008;Singh et al, 2013;Tee et al, 2013;Singh et al, 2014;Xia et al, 2014;Ooi et al, 2015;Bahari et al, 2018;Rosli et al, 2018;Avila-Mendez et al, 2019), proteins (Syahanim et al, 2013Jeffery Daim et al, 2015;Ooi et al, 2015;Lau et al, 2018;Hassan et al, 2019) and metabolites (Tahir et al, 2012;Zain et al, 2013;Rozali et al, 2017). It is imperative to understand the molecular mechanisms governing the complex diversity of biomolecules and dynamics in oil palm traits such as yield, height, quality and disease resistance using different oil palm tissues including leaf, root, fruit, seed, trunk and basal stem, which can be deployed in breeding programmes.…”