Developing functional markers for vitamin E biosynthesis in oil palm

PLoS One. 2021 Nov 19;16(11):e0259684. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0259684. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

Vitamin E is essential for human health and plays positive roles in anti-oxidation. Previously, we detected large variation in vitamin E content among 161 oil palm accessions. In this study, twenty oil palm accessions with distinct variation in vitamin E contents (171.30 to 1 258.50 ppm) were selected for genetic variation analysis and developing functional markers associated with vitamin E contents. Thirty-seven homologous genes in oil palm belonging to vitamin E biosynthesis pathway were identified via BLASTP analysis, the lengths of which ranged from 426 to 25 717 bp (average 7 089 bp). Multiplex PCR sequencing for the 37 genes found 1 703 SNPs and 85 indels among the 20 oil palm accessions, with 226 SNPs locating in the coding regions. Clustering analysis for these polymorphic loci showed that the 20 oil palm accessions could be divided into five groups. Among these groups, group I included eight oil palm accessions whose vitamin E content (mean value: 893.50 ppm) was far higher than other groups (mean value 256.29 to 532.94 ppm). Correlation analysis between the markers and vitamin E traits showed that 134 SNP and 7 indel markers were significantly (p < 0.05) related with total vitamin E content. Among these functional markers, the indel EgTMT-1-24 was highly correlated with variation in vitamin E content, especially tocotrienol content. Our study identified a number of candidate function associated markers and provided clues for further research into molecular breeding for high vitamin E content oil palm.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Cluster Analysis
  • Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Palm Oil / metabolism*
  • Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / genetics
  • Vitamin E / metabolism*

Substances

  • Vitamin E
  • Palm Oil

Grants and funding

This work was supported by Central public-interest scientific institution basal research fund for the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences (No. 1630152017008 and 1630152019002) and the fund for species and varieties conservation of sector project of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (1820039).