Loss of Karma transposon methylation underlies the mantled somaclonal variant of oil palm.

ABSTRACT: Somaclonal variation arises in plants and animals when differentiated somatic cells are induced into a pluripotent state, but the resulting clones differ from each other and from their parents. In agriculture, somaclonal variation has hindered the micropropagation of elite hybrids and genetically modified crops, but the mechanism responsible remains unknown. The oil palm fruit 'mantled' abnormality is a somaclonal variant arising from tissue culture that drastically reduces yield, and has largely halted efforts to clone elite hybrids for oil production. Widely regarded as an epigenetic phenomenon, 'mantling' has defied explanation, but here we identify the MANTLED locus using epigenome-wide association studies of the African oil palm Elaeis guineensis. DNA hypomethylation of a LINE retrotr

SUBMITTER: Ong-Abdullah M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4857894 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature