MyMedR

Fulltext Anti-inflammatory, gastroprotective and anti-ulcerogenic effects of red algae Gracilaria changii (Gracilariales, Rhodophyta) extract

Shu MH, Appleton D, Zandi K, AbuBakar S

BMC Complement Altern Med, 2013;13:61.

PMID: 23497105 DOI: 10.1186/1472-6882-13-61

Gracilaria changii (Xia et Abbott) Abbott, Zhang et Xia, a red algae commonly found in the coastal areas of Malaysia is traditionally used for foods and for the treatment of various ailments including inflammation and gastric ailments. The aim of the study was to investigate anti-inflammatory, gastroprotective and anti-ulcerogenic activities of a mass spectrometry standardized methanolic extract of Gracilaria changii.

Rapid identification of cyclic tetrapyrrolic photosensitisers for photodynamic therapy using on-line hyphenated LC-PDA-MS coupled with photo-cytotoxicity assay

Tan PJ, Appleton DR, Mustafa MR, Lee HB

Phytochem Anal, 2012 Jan-Feb;23(1):52-9.

PMID: 21692117 DOI: 10.1002/pca.1324

Photodynamic therapy is a treatment modality that involves site-directed generation of cytotoxic reactive oxygen species by light-activated photosensitisers.

Fulltext In vitro and in vivo anti-inflammatory activity of 17-O-acetylacuminolide through the inhibition of cytokines, NF-κB translocation and IKKβ activity

Achoui M, Appleton D, Abdulla MA, Awang K, Mohd MA, Mustafa MR

PLoS One, 2010;5(12):e15105.

PMID: 21152019 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0015105

17-O-acetylacuminolide (AA), a diterpenoid labdane, was isolated for the first time from the plant species Neouvaria foetida. The anti-inflammatory effects of this compound were studied both in vitro and in vivo.

Streptomyces sanglieri which colonised and enhanced the growth of Elaeis guineensis Jacq. seedlings was antagonistic to Ganoderma boninense in in vitro studies

Nur Azura AB, Yusoff M, Tan GY, Jegadeesh R, Appleton DR, Vikineswary S

J Ind Microbiol Biotechnol, 2016 Apr;43(4):485-93.

PMID: 26721619 DOI: 10.1007/s10295-015-1724-4

Actinomycete strain AUM 00500 was 99.5 % similar to Streptomyces sanglieri NBRC 100784(T) and was evaluated for antagonistic activity towards Ganoderma boninense, the causative fungus of basal stem rot of oil palm. The strain showed strong antifungal activity towards G. boninense in in vitro and SEM analysis showed various modes of inhibition of the fungus. Ethyl acetate extracts of single culture and inhibition zone of cross-plug culture by HPLC indicated that strain AUM 00500 produced two different antibiotics of the glutarimide group namely cycloheximide and actiphenol. In greenhouse trials, oil palm seed treated with spores of S. sanglieri strain AUM 00500 at 10(9) cfu/ml showed significant (P

Fulltext A practical genome-enabled legitimacy assay for oil palm breeding and seed production

Teh CK, Lee HL, Abidin H, Ong AL, Mayes S, Chew FT, et al.

BMC Plant Biol, 2019 Nov 05;19(1):470.

PMID: 31690276 DOI: 10.1186/s12870-019-2062-x

BACKGROUND: Legitimacy in breeding and commercial crop production depends on optimised protocols to ensure purity of crosses and correct field planting of material. In oil palm, the presence of three fruit forms permits these assumptions to be tested, although only after field planting. The presence of incorrect fruit forms in a cross is a clear sign of illegitimacy. Given that tenera forms produce 30% more oil for the same weight of fruit as dura, the presence of low levels of dura contamination can have major effect during the economic lifespan of an oil palm, which is around 25 years. We evaluated two methods for legitimacy test 1) The use of SHELL markers to the gene that determines the shell-thickness trait 2) The use of SNP markers, to determine the legitimacy of the cross.

RESULTS: Our results indicate that the SHELL markers can theoretically reduce the major losses due to dura contamination of tenera planting material. However, these markers cannot distinguish illegitimate tenera, which reduces the value of having bred elite tenera for commercial planting and in the breeding programme, where fruit form is of limited utility, and incorrect identity could lead to significant problems. We propose an optimised approach using SNPs for routine quality control.

CONCLUSIONS: Both dura and tenera contamination can be identified and removed at or before the nursery stage. An optimised legitimacy assay using SNP markers coupled with a suitable sampling scheme is now ready to be deployed as a standard control for seed production and breeding in oil palm. The same approach will also be an effective solution for other perennial crops, such as coconut and date palm.

Fulltext Genome-wide association study identifies three key loci for high mesocarp oil content in perennial crop oil palm

Teh CK, Ong AL, Kwong QB, Apparow S, Chew FT, Mayes S, et al.

Sci Rep, 2016;6:19075.

PMID: 26743827 DOI: 10.1038/srep19075

GWAS in out-crossing perennial crops is typically limited by insufficient marker density to account for population diversity and effects of population structure resulting in high false positive rates. The perennial crop oil palm is the most productive oil crop. We performed GWAS for oil-to-dry-mesocarp content (O/DM) on 2,045 genotyped tenera palms using 200K SNPs that were selected based on the short-range linkage disequilibrium distance, which is inherent with long breeding cycles and heterogeneous breeding populations. Eighty loci were significantly associated with O/DM (p ≤ 10(-4)) and three key signals were found. We then evaluated the progeny of a Deli x AVROS breeding trial and a 4% higher O/DM was observed amongst those having the beneficial genotypes at two of the three key loci (p < 0.05). We have initiated MAS and large-scale planting of elite dura and pisifera parents to generate the new commercial tenera palms with higher O/DM potential.

Fulltext Characterizing haploinsufficiency of SHELL gene to improve fruit form prediction in introgressive hybrids of oil palm

Teh CK, Muaz SD, Tangaya P, Fong PY, Ong AL, Mayes S, et al.

Sci Rep, 2017 06 08;7(1):3118.

PMID: 28596562 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-03225-7

The fundamental trait in selective breeding of oil palm (Eleais guineensis Jacq.) is the shell thickness surrounding the kernel. The monogenic shell thickness is inversely correlated to mesocarp thickness, where the crude palm oil accumulates. Commercial thin-shelled tenera derived from thick-shelled dura × shell-less pisifera generally contain 30% higher oil per bunch. Two mutations, sh MPOB (M1) and sh AVROS (M2) in the SHELL gene - a type II MADS-box transcription factor mainly present in AVROS and Nigerian origins, were reported to be responsible for different fruit forms. In this study, we have tested 1,339 samples maintained in Sime Darby Plantation using both mutations. Five genotype-phenotype discrepancies and eight controls were then re-tested with all five reported mutations (sh AVROS , sh MPOB , sh MPOB2 , sh MPOB3 and sh MPOB4 ) within the same gene. The integration of genotypic data, pedigree records and shell formation model further explained the haploinsufficiency effect on the SHELL gene with different number of functional copies. Some rare mutations were also identified, suggesting a need to further confirm the existence of cis-compound mutations in the gene. With this, the prediction accuracy of fruit forms can be further improved, especially in introgressive hybrids of oil palm. Understanding causative variant segregation is extremely important, even for monogenic traits such as shell thickness in oil palm.

Fulltext Key glycolytic branch influences mesocarp oil content in oil palm

Ruzlan N, Low YSJ, Win W, Azizah Musa N, Ong AL, Chew FT, et al.

Sci Rep, 2017 Aug 29;7(1):9626.

PMID: 28852058 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-10195-3

The fructose-1,6-bisphosphate aldolase catalyzed glycolysis branch that forms dihydroxyacetone phosphate and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate was identified as a key driver of increased oil synthesis in oil palm and was validated in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Reduction in triose phosphate isomerase (TPI) activity in a yeast knockdown mutant resulted in 19% increase in lipid content, while yeast strains overexpressing oil palm fructose-1,6-bisphosphate aldolase (EgFBA) and glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (EgG3PDH) showed increased lipid content by 16% and 21%, respectively. Genetic association analysis on oil palm SNPs of EgTPI SD_SNP_000035801 and EgGAPDH SD_SNP_000041011 showed that palms harboring homozygous GG in EgTPI and heterozygous AG in EgGAPDH exhibited higher mesocarp oil content based on dry weight. In addition, AG genotype of the SNP of EgG3PDH SD_SNP_000008411 was associated with higher mean mesocarp oil content, whereas GG genotype of the EgFBA SNP SD_SNP_000007765 was favourable. Additive effects were observed with a combination of favourable alleles in TPI and FBA in Nigerian x AVROS population (family F7) with highest allele frequency GG.GG being associated with a mean increase of 3.77% (p value = 2.3E-16) oil content over the Family 1. An analogous effect was observed in yeast, where overexpressed EgFBA in TPI - resulted in a 30% oil increment. These results provide insights into flux balances in glycolysis leading to higher yield in mesocarp oil-producing fruit.

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