Journal of Oil Palm Research (Special Issue), p. 46-53
PROTEIN ANALYSIS OF SHOOT APICAL MERISTEM OF OIL PALM DURING TRANSITION FROM VEGETATIVE MERISTEM TO AN INFLORESCENCE MERISTEM
Oil palm shoots were grown in vitro on high cytokinin media. Terminal inflorescences were observed after four to five months of growth. Two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis was carried out to identify unique proteins in shoot apices producing terminal infloreseence. Three proteins were identified, the absence of which could be associated with the conversion of a vegetative meristem to an inflorescence meristem. Histological studies of the inflorescence revealed that it had no flowers. This showed that in vitro, under high cytokinin growth condition, the vegetative meristem could be induced to transform into an inflorescence meristem. However, the inflorescence meristems produced are not competent to produce flowers.
KEYWORDS:* Palm Oil Research Institute of Malaysia,
P.O. Box 10620, 50720 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
** Universiti Putra Malaysia,
Food Science and Biotechnology Faculty,
43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia