Effect of Glutamine on Storage Protein Accumulation during Maturation of Oil Palm Somatic Embryos ( Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) Observed by Transmission Electron Microscopy

Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) is the highest oil producing plant that has an important role in increasing our foreign exchange. Oil palm micro propagation via somatic embryogenesis (SE) offers the potential to enhance productivity of oil palm. However, in SE low percentage of germination rates still occurred. It was assumed that it is related to the maturation process. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the effect of glutamine on storage protein accumulation during the maturation of oil palm somatic embryos and to determine optimum concentration of glutamine in accumulating storage protein of oil palm somatic embryos. After 6 weeks of culture in MM I, volume of the somatic embryos became higher and the colour become yellowish. Generally, the enhancement rate of fresh weight both control embryo and treated embryo were not significantly different up to 5 weeks of culture but significantly different on 6 weeks of culture. Analysis of One-way ANOVA and LSD-Multiple comparison showed that enhancement of the fresh weight of control embryos were significantly different with treated embryos on 30 mM glutamine (P ≤ 0.05). Ultrastructure analysis showed that cell of the mature embryos containing cytoplasm, small vacuoles, organelles and storage protein, which occurred as discrete protein bodies. It was concluded that glutamine contributed to storage protein accumulation and this accumulation was optimum in 30mM glutamine.