Genetic Transformation of the American Oil Palm (Elaeis oleifera) Immature Zygotic Embryos with Antisense Palmitoyl-Acyl Carrier Protein Thioesterase (PATE) Gene

The Palmitoyl-acyl carrier protein thioesterase (PATE) gene is one of the key genes involved in plastidial fatty acid biosynthesis and known to regulate the accumulation of the C . In American oil palm 16:0 (Elaeis oleifera) fruit mesocarp, C content can be minimized by post-transcriptional PATE gene silencing. 16:0 In this study, 12 weeks old immature zygotic embryos (IZEs) of E. oleifera were transformed with a construct carrying 619 bp long antisense PATE (antiPATE) gene driven by oil palm mesocarp-tissue-specific promoter. The particle bombardment-mediated method of plant transformation was used. Selection of the transformed IZEs was carried out using hygromycin (HYG) as a selection marker. Plantlets were regenerated from the HYG resistant IZEs. A total of 56 HYG resistant plantlets were regenerated successfully. Five out of 56 were identified as putative transformants by using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis and the nucleotide sequencing of the PCR products. Southern hybridization of genomic DNA of 5 putative transformants further confirmed presence of T-DNA. We hypothesize that the post-transcriptional PATE gene silencing in E. oleifera fruit mesocarp tissue may increase the level of palmitoleic (C ), stearic (C ) and oleic (C ) acids up to some 16:1 18:0 18:1 extent at the expense of C . The successful integration of antiPATE is reported in this paper. 16:0