Abstract
It is well known that the nutritional quality of the American oil-palm (Elaeis oleifera) mesocarp oil is superior to that of African oil-palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq. Tenera) mesocarp oil. Therefore, it is of important to identify the genetic features for its superior value. This could be achieved through the genome sequencing of the oil-palm. However, the genome sequence is not available in the public domain due to commercial secrecy. Hence, we constructed a cDNA library and generated expressed sequence tags (3,205) from the mesocarp tissue of the American oil-palm. We continued to annotate each of these cDNAs after submitting to GenBank/DDBJ/EMBL. A rough analysis turned our attention to the beta-carotene hydroxylase (Chyb) enzyme encoding cDNA. Then, we completed the full sequencing of cDNA clone for its both strands using M13 forward and reverse primers. The full nucleotide and protein sequence was further analyzed and annotated using various Bioinformatics tools. The analysis results showed the presence of fatty acid hydroxylase superfamily domain in the protein sequence. The multiple sequence alignment of selected Chyb amino acid sequences from other plant species and algal members with E. oleifera Chyb using ClustalW and its phylogenetic analysis suggest that Chyb from monocotyledonous plant species, Lilium hubrid, Crocus sativus and Zea mays are the most evolutionary related with E. oleifera Chyb. This study reports the annotation of E. oleifera Chyb. ESTs - expressed sequence tags, EoChyb - Elaeis oleifera beta-carotene hydroxylase, MC - main cluster.
Highlights
The second largest source of fats and oils to the world market of fats and oils is from Elaeis guineensis Jacq Tenera, which is commonly known as African oil-palm
The availability of Elaeis oleifera beta-carotene hydroxylase (EoChyb) cDNA clone in 17 day old mesocarp tissue cDNA library indicates that Chyb is expressed in developing E. oleifera fruit mesocarp tissue
Conserved domain search in EoChyb indicates that amino acid residue 46-324 are part of the beta-carotene hydroxylase conserved domain; and amino acid residues 184-309 belongs to the sterol desaturase [lipid metabolism] domain (Figure 1)
Summary
The second largest source of fats and oils to the world market of fats and oils is from Elaeis guineensis Jacq Tenera, which is commonly known as African oil-palm. African oil-palm, E. guineensis Jacq have three different forms ( called as varieties), namely, ‘Pisifera’, ‘Dura’, and ‘Tenera’. These three forms are distinguished on the basis of shell thickness of fruits. The commercially cultivated African oil-palm is a hybrid from ‘Dura’ (♀) and ‘Pisifera’ (♂) [1]. Another oil-palm species which is economically less important is Elaeis oleifera. This species is called as American oil-palm
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