Oil palm genome sequence reveals divergence of interfertile species in Old and New worlds

Rajinder Singh, Meilina Ong-Abdullah, Eng Ti Leslie Low, Mohamad Arif Abdul Manaf, Rozana Rosli, Rajanaidu Nookiah, Leslie Cheng Li Ooi, Siew Eng Ooi, Kuang Lim Chan, Mohd Amin Halim, Norazah Azizi, Jayanthi Nagappan, Blaire Bacher, Nathan Lakey, Steven W. Smith, Dong He, Michael Hogan, Muhammad A. Budiman, Ernest K. Lee, Rob DesalleDavid Kudrna, Jose Luis Goicoechea, Rod A. Wing, Richard K. Wilson, Robert S. Fulton, Jared M. Ordway, Robert A. Martienssen, Ravigadevi Sambanthamurthi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

448 Scopus citations

Abstract

Oil palm is the most productive oil-bearing crop. Although it is planted on only 5% of the total world vegetable oil acreage, palm oil accounts for 33% of vegetable oil and 45% of edible oil worldwide, but increased cultivation competes with dwindling rainforest reserves. We report the 1.8-gigabase (Gb) genome sequence of the African oil palm Elaeis guineensis, the predominant source of worldwide oil production. A total of 1.535 Gb of assembled sequence and transcriptome data from 30 tissue types were used to predict at least 34,802 genes, including oil biosynthesis genes and homologues of WRINKLED1 (WRI1), and other transcriptional regulators, which are highly expressed in the kernel. We also report the draft sequence of the South American oil palm Elaeis oleifera, which has the same number of chromosomes (2n = 32) and produces fertile interspecific hybrids with E. guineensis but seems to have diverged in the New World. Segmental duplications of chromosome arms define the palaeotetraploid origin of palm trees. The oil palm sequence enables the discovery of genes for important traits as well as somaclonal epigenetic alterations that restrict the use of clones in commercial plantings, and should therefore help to achieve sustainability for biofuels and edible oils, reducing the rainforest footprint of this tropical plantation crop. © 2013 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.
Original languageEnglish (US)
JournalNature
Volume500
Issue number7462
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 30 2013
Externally publishedYes

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