Metabolome Study of Oil Palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) Planted in Different Environment Conditions

The growth and productivity of a crop such as the oil palm are influenced by their complex interactions with the environment. However, the stochasticity of intricate biological systems such as plants is a challenge for accurate assessment of the interaction magnitude. In this study, oil palm clones produced from tissue culture process as a genetically uniform planting material were planted in two different environments of open field and biosafety screenhouse. The metabolome of various plant parts including spear leaf, mature leaf and root tissues was investigated using liquid and gas chromatography combined with mass spectrometry detection and chemometrics data analysis for reliable metabolite characterization. The oil palm metabolome information was correlated with morphological information and the environmental parameters of temperature, humidity, amount of light and precipitation from the two sites to discern the relationship and effect of the environmental factors on the crop. Although derived from a similar origin, the oil palm morphology and metabolome were impacted by their planting environment especially the amount of light. Several biosynthetic and metabolism pathways were affected by the different environment, marked by the abundance of primary and secondary metabolites such as galactinol, threitol, sucrose, phenyl-beta-glucopyranoside, dopamine, pipecolic, chelidonic and gluconic acids, phenolics such as vanillic acid, caftaric acid, orientin and isoorientin, neohesperidin, epicatechin, and isomers of caffeoylshikimic acid. This finding illustrates phenotypic responses that may not be studied effectively by genetic studies alone and provides useful insights for future diagnostic analysis of crop assessment and improvement.