Metabolome analysis of oil palm clone P325 of different planting trials

Abstract

The production of oil palm clones via tissue culture technique will increase productivity and yield of the oil crop by providing elite and uniform material for the industry. To exploit their full potential, these clones need to be planted on prime acreage. However, limitation of arable land has pushed oil palm growers towards more challenging environment such as peat soil. In this study, oil palm clone P325 planted on peat and mineral soil trials were subjected to metabolome and multivariate analyses to capture their response to their planting sites. The investigation recorded spear leaf metabolome differentiation according to the field trials of different soil types, marked by the asparagine and dopamine abundance difference in principal component analysis (PCA) loadings plot. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) demonstrates a sensitive and rapid method in acquiring information that to date has been scarce for this important crop. Multivariate statistical analysis of PCA further enables the visualisation of the chemical distinction of the tissue from the complex data.