The effect of Ganoderma boninense infection on the expressions of thiamine (vitamin b1) biosynthesis genes in oil palm

Thi­amine pyrophos­phate (TPP), an active form of thi­amine plays a fun­da­men­tal role as an enzy­matic cofac­tor in uni­ver­sal meta­bolic path­ways includ­ing gly­col­y­sis and pen­tose phos­phate path­way. We iden­ti­fied and ampli­fied gene tran­scripts of the first two enzymes in the path­way, THI1/THI4 and THIC. Primers were designed based on sequence com­par­i­son of the genes from Ara­bidop­sis, rice and maize. We also inves­ti­gated the rela­tion­ship between expres­sion of thi­amine biosyn­the­sis genes and stress. This is due to find­ings sug­gest­ing that TPP has func­tions other than as a cofac­tor in response to stress in plants. The response of THI1/THI4 and THIC gene tran­scripts towards the infec­tion of Gan­o­derma boni­nense on oil palm was observed. The gene tran­scripts’ expres­sions were analysed via RT-PCR over a time course after infec­tion. For THI1/THI4, the per­cent­age of level of expres­sion for healthy oil palm is 29.79% and an increase up to 70.21% was observed in arti­fi­cially infected oil palm seedlings. For THIC gene, in healthy oil palm, the level of expres­sion was 45.83% but when infected, it increased slightly up to 54.17%. Our results sup­port the sug­ges­tion that thi­amine may play an impor­tant role in the pro­tec­tion of cells against stress as it leads to an over­ex­pres­sion of thi­amine in general.

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