Genomic Landscape of Sago Palm (Metroxylon sagu Rottb.)

Leonard Whye Kit, Lim (2022) Genomic Landscape of Sago Palm (Metroxylon sagu Rottb.). PhD thesis, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak.

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Abstract

The sago palm (Metroxylon sagu Rottboll) is a halophytic tree and the ultimate solution to two major global issues: food security and the rapid loss of saline free agricultural lands. This palm can produce high amount of starch, besides being resistant to saline and almost disease free. Unfortunately, this valuable palm is currently underappreciated by the scientific community and the genomic landscape of this palm remained scarce to date. The aim of this study is to sequence and characterise the sago palm chloroplast genome, document the organellar genome copy number changes across various developmental stages, organs, localities and phenotypes as well as sequence the entire nuclear genome of sago palm. The sago palm chloroplast and nuclear genome sizes determined in this study are 157,300 bp and 616,599,600 bp respectively, yielded via next generation sequencing technologies. The organellar genome copy number investigation employing the combinatorial approach of both qPCR and long-PCR assays had unearthed that the mature leaf is generally most enriched with unimpeded plastome and mitogenome among other organs. The Plawei Manit growth stage was discovered to have the highest unimpeded organellar genomes copy numbers (over 180,000) among the five major growth stages. The trunking phenotype was proven to be superior to that of the spiny and non-trunking phenotypes in terms of organellar genomes copy numbers (over 188,000). Interestingly, the organellar genome copy numbers across four main Sarawak localities in Malaysia are indifferent statistically. This study serves as a groundwork for preliminary sago palm genomic landscape to support future haplotype and genome wide association studies.

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