African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 3 (11), pp. 595-598, November 2004           
ISSN 1684–5315 © 2004 Academic Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Detection of mesocarp oleoyl-thioesterase gene of the South American oil palm Elaeis oleifera by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction

Omorefe Asemota* and Farida Habib Shah

Department of Genetics, Faculty of Life Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Malaysia.

*Corresponding author. E-Mail: efe_asemota@hotmail.com.

Accepted 20 July, 2004

The thioesterase enzyme functions in lipid synthesis by cleaving the acyl-ACP bond and liberating the fatty acid. Thioesterases have been isolated from a number of plant sources. The gene for this enzyme was detected in Elaeis oleifera by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), cloned and sequenced and found to have considerable sequence similarity with other previously cloned thioesterases. Its highest homology is to the Brassica napus oleoyl-ACP thioesterase, 72% at the nucleotide level over the coding region examined, and 83% identity (90% positives) at the amino acid level.

Key words: Elaeis oleifera, mesocarp, oleoyl-ACP thioesterase, RT-PCR.