METABOLOMICS UNRAVEL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CAMEROON Dura AND DELI Dura OIL PALM (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) GENETIC BACKGROUNDS AGAINST BASAL STEM ROT

Metabolomics is emerging as a powerful tool for screening of metabolites in both phenotyping and diagnostic analyses in plants. Metabolomics coupled with multivariate statistical analysis has provided a fast and unbiased comparative investigation of the metabolite composition in oil palm root. Basal stem rot (BSR) caused by the white rot fungus, Ganoderma boninense is a common oil palm disease in south-east Asia. Little is known about the disease mechanism and there is yet no satisfactory treatment for it. Besides agronomic practice of reducing the disease inoculum in the field, breeding for resistance to the disease is probably the most practical control. This study investigated metabolomic differences in oil palm planting materials with varying susceptibility to G. boninense from Cameroon and Deli genetic backgrounds. Liquid chromatography-quad-rupole/time-of-flight-mass spectrometry (LC-Q/TOF-MS) data was subjected to multivariate statistical analysis and discovered that the palms could be categorised into two clusters linked to Cameroon and Deli oil palms. Changes in metabolites involved in phenylpropanoid pathway and primary metabolism including shikimic acid, glucose and malic acid were observed. The comprehensive and unbiased strategy for metabolite data analysis presented here can be adopted to screen wider oil palm germplasm for those potentially useful for breeding BSR-resistant palms.