Physiological, biochemical and molecular analyses of fruit development in oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.)

In Malaysia, oil palm is the main commodity crop and has strongly contributed to the country’s economic development. However, the industry is facing several challenges including diminishing land resource for expansion. One of the targets to ensure oil palm sustainability is to increase yield per unit area without affecting its quality and with minimal impact to the environment. The non-synchronized ripening process and shedding of the fruits is among the factors that limit yield improvement and affect oil quality. Thus, the present study was conducted to deepen our understanding of the changes that occur within the fresh fruit bunch (FFB) during fruit development. This work also takes into account the various fruit positions (inner, middle and outer) and locations (apical, central and basal) within the bunch. In the present study, physiological, biochemical and molecular analyses were performed using fruits from various stages of fruit development. Physiological and biochemical analyses included measurements of carotenoid, FAC (fatty acid composition) and ethylene production. UV-Vis spectrophotometer, gas chromatography mass spectrophotometry (GCMS) and GC equipped with flame ionization detector (FID) were used to estimate and quantify the β-carotene content, FAC and ethylene production from the fruit mesocarp from young until the ripening stages. Results showed that changes in the β-carotene content, FAC and ethylene production throughout the fruit developmental stages from young until ripening were significant (p<0.001). Both accumulation of the β-carotene and ethylene production increased as the fruits developed and reached the maximum at the ripest stage used in this study. Similarly, changes in the FAC was observed especially in palmitic, oleic, stearic and linoleic acid throughout the fruit developmental process where the level of oleic acid was found to be the highest in the ripest fruit stage used in this study, surpassing that of palmitic acid. In the present study, it was also observed that fruit positioned within the spikelets throughout the bunch at the various fruit developmental stage from young until ripening showed significant changes (p