title: Oil palm genome sequence reveals divergence of interfertile species in Old and New worlds.
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.
authors.affiliation: Malaysian Palm Oil Board, 6, Persiaran Institusi, Bandar Baru Bangi, 43000 Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia. raviga@mpob.gov.my
authors.forename: Rajinder
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Meilina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ong-Abdullah
authors.forename: Eng-Ti Leslie
authors.initials: ET
authors.lastname: Low
authors.forename: Mohamad Arif Abdul
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Manaf
authors.forename: Rozana
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rosli
authors.forename: Rajanaidu
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nookiah
authors.forename: Leslie Cheng-Li
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Ooi
authors.forename: Siew-Eng
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Ooi
authors.forename: Kuang-Lim
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: Mohd Amin
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Halim
authors.forename: Norazah
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Azizi
authors.forename: Jayanthi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Nagappan
authors.forename: Blaire
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bacher
authors.forename: Nathan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Lakey
authors.forename: Steven W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Dong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hogan
authors.forename: Muhammad A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Budiman
authors.forename: Ernest K
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Rob
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: DeSalle
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kudrna
authors.forename: Jose Luis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Goicoechea
authors.forename: Rod A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Wing
authors.forename: Richard K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.forename: Robert S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Fulton
authors.forename: Jared M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Ordway
authors.forename: Robert A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Martienssen
authors.forename: Ravigadevi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sambanthamurthi
mesh_terms: D028023:Arecaceae / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D050260:Carbohydrate Metabolism / Q000235:genetics; D032461:Chromosomes, Plant / Q000235:genetics; D018745:Genome, Plant / Q000235:genetics*; D050356:Lipid Metabolism / Q000235:genetics; D008957:Models, Genetic; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny