Isolation and Characterization of Oil Palm Wrinkled 1 (WRI1) Gene

Oil palm ((Elaeis guineensis Jacq) is one of the most productive oil crops in the world. It can produce oil up to 90% of its dry weight and has the highest oil content reported among other plant tissues. WRI1 gene is one of many contributing genes that control oil content in oil palm fruit. Despite its obvious scientific and economic interest, literature and molecular resources about WRI1 gene in oil palm are still limited. The objective of this research was to isolate sequence and characterize the WRI1 gene from oil palm genome. WRI1 gene was successfully amplified from oil palm cDNA library. The amplification produced a single DNA fragment of 1 000 bp and which was cloned into pJET cloning vector for sequencing. The sequencing result showed two clones that were identified as WRI1 transcription factor.