RESEARCH ARTICLE

Journal of Oil Palm Research (Special Issue - April 2006), p. 87-98

DEVELOPMENTS TOWARD THE APPLICATION OF DNA CHIP TECHNOLOGY IN OIL PALM TISSUE CULTURE

LOW Eng.Ti, Leslie. ; TAN, J.S. ; CHAN Pek Lan ; BOON Soo Heong ; WONG, Y.L ; ROZANA, R ; OOI, LC-L ; MA Lay Sun ; MEILINA ONG Abdullah ; CHEAH Suan Choo; RAJINDER Singh

ABSTRACT

In recent years, microarrays have become widely recognized as a significant technological advance to facilitate high throughput analysis of thousands of genes and their interactions simultaneously. Microarray technology can help in the rapid identification of novel genes or gene functions most worthy of detailed characterization. cDNA microarrays were utilized to understand the molecular mechanism associated with oil palm tissue culture. The availability of oil palm expressed sequence tags (ESTs) allowed the development of a DNA chip, with 3806 oil palm gene clones. The basic parameters associated with the DNA microarray experimental technique [RNA extraction, RNA amplification, Cyanine dye (CyDye) labelling, hybridization, scanning and data normalization] were successfully established. This paper will focus on developments of cDNA microarray technique towards understanding oil palm tissue culture, with emphasis on the parameters used for data analysis. We also include specific examples to demonstrate how this technology can be applied to improve our understanding of oil palm tissue culture.

KEYWORDS:


* Malaysian Palm Oil Board,
P. O. Box 10620,
50720 Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia.
E-mail: lowengti@mpob.gov.my