Laboratory of Sustainable Agronomy and Crop Protection, Institute of Plantation Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
Department of Agriculture Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, University Putra Malaysia, 43400, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
BMC Genom Data. 2021 Feb 5;22(1):6. doi: 10.1186/s12863-021-00962-7.
Phosphorus (P), in its orthophosphate form (Pi) is an essential macronutrient for oil palm early growth development in which Pi deficiency could later on be reflected in lower biomass production. Application of phosphate rock, a non-renewable resource has been the common practice to increase Pi accessibility and maintain crop productivity in Malaysia. However, high fixation rate of Pi in the native acidic tropical soils has led to excessive utilization of P fertilizers. This has caused serious environmental pollutions and cost increment. Even so, the Pi deficiency response mechanism in oil palm as one of the basic prerequisites for crop improvement remains largely unknown.
Using total RNA extracted from young roots as template, we performed a comparative transcriptome analysis on oil palm responding to 14d and 28d of Pi deprivation treatment and under adequate Pi supply. By using Illumina HiSeq4000 platform, RNA-Seq analysis was successfully conducted on 12 paired-end RNA-Seq libraries and generated more than 1.2 billion of clean reads in total. Transcript abundance estimated by fragments per kilobase per million fragments (FPKM) and differential expression analysis revealed 36 and 252 genes that are differentially regulated in Pi-starved roots at 14d and 28d, respectively. Genes possibly involved in regulating Pi homeostasis, nutrient uptake and transport, hormonal signaling and gene transcription were found among the differentially expressed genes.
Our results showed that the molecular response mechanism underlying Pi starvation in oil palm is complexed and involved multilevel regulation of various sensing and signaling components. This contribution would generate valuable genomic resources in the effort to develop oil palm planting materials that possess Pi-use efficient trait through molecular manipulation and breeding programs.
磷（P）以正磷酸盐（Pi）的形式是油棕早期生长发育的必需大量营养素，Pi 缺乏会导致生物量产量降低。在马来西亚，应用不可再生资源磷矿来增加 Pi 的可利用性和维持作物生产力是常见的做法。然而，在本地酸性热带土壤中，Pi 的高固定率导致了磷肥的过度利用。这造成了严重的环境污染和成本增加。即便如此，油棕对 Pi 缺乏的反应机制作为作物改良的基本前提之一，在很大程度上仍不清楚。
我们使用从小根提取的总 RNA 作为模板，对油棕在 14d 和 28d Pi 剥夺处理和充足 Pi 供应下的响应进行了比较转录组分析。通过使用 Illumina HiSeq4000 平台，成功地对 12 对 Paired-End RNA-Seq 文库进行了 RNA-Seq 分析，总共产生了超过 12 亿个清洁读数。通过片段每千碱基百万片段（FPKM）估计的转录丰度和差异表达分析，在 14d 和 28d 时分别有 36 和 252 个基因在 Pi 饥饿的根中差异调控。在差异表达基因中发现了可能参与调节 Pi 稳态、养分吸收和运输、激素信号和基因转录的基因。
我们的结果表明，油棕 Pi 饥饿的分子反应机制是复杂的，涉及各种感应和信号成分的多层次调节。这一贡献将为开发具有 Pi 利用效率特性的油棕种植材料提供有价值的基因组资源，通过分子操作和育种计划实现。
