Alisa Nakkaew, Amornrat Phongdara, Theera Eksomtramage, and Wilaiwan Chotigeat

pp. 57 - 64

Abstract

Oil palm is an economic crop with its oil currently in high demand. In this work, the numbers of EgaccD copies, one of
the key genes involved in fatty acid synthesis and oil production, were compared from two populations of oil palm, one a low
and the other a high oil content productivity cultivar. Real time PCR was employed and the copy number of the EgaccD from
the high oil yielding cultivar was much higher than from the low oil yielding cultivar. The EgaccD was then over expressed in
oil palm calli under the control of its promoter to establish if its overexpression could enhance the oil content of transgenic
calli. An increase in the lipid accumulation by the modified calli was detected by Sudan black B staining. Based on this
finding, genetic manipulation of EgaccD seemed to be one promising method to try to increase the oil content. Also it seemed
possible to use the level of this gene as a marker to assist selection of possible high oil yielding cultivars in breeding
programs.