Roche Applied Science has revealed that its 454 Sequencing Systems have played a part in the sequencing, assembly and annotation of the oil palm genome.
The announcement was made by a team of researchers at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and is a key milestone in an effort to enhance productivity and sustainability of this commercially important plant.
The initiative also analysed gene expression at various stages of development in order to elucidate oil biosynthesis mechanisms through the sequencing of 12 transcriptomes.
Officiated by the prime minister of Malaysia, Dato' Sri Najib Tun Razak, the announcement detailed the partnership between Sime Darby, Synamatix and 454 Life Sciences to fully characterise the genome of the tropical plant.
Palm oil is used widely in food, health supplements, cosmetics, and increasingly as a biofuel.
By uncovering the genome of the oil palm, researchers will eventually be able to develop more sustainable trees with increased oil yield.
While the completion of the 1.7 billion base pair oil palm genome is an agricultural milestone, it also signals a shift in the technological approach used for sequencing of large complex plant genomes.
The genome was sequenced using only the Genome Sequencer FLX Titanium system and then assembled and analysed by Synamatix, a bioinformatics company based in Malaysia.
Importantly, the researchers said this is the first de novo genome assembly of a large and complex plant to be completed without the addition of conventional Sanger sequencing data.
This fast and economical approach opens new doors to understanding the genetic makeup of a range of economically important plants, where sequencing has traditionally been prohibitively expensive.
