Malaysian researchers announced on May 21 that they and the American researchers have drawn together a large part of the genome sketches of palm trees and made progress in the study of the Jatropha genome. They hope that these studies will help increase the oil production and disease resistance of these two oil plants.
At the press conference held in Kuala Lumpur on the same day, the Malaysian Asian Genome Technology Center said that the palm tree genome consists of about 1.8 billion base pairs. Research groups in Malaysia and the United States have completed the sequencing of 70% of the palm genome. In the next phase, researchers will try to detect the rest of the palm genome and begin detailed analysis.
Experts at the center pointed out that certain varieties of palm trees are high-yielding plants, and palm oil extracted from its fruits can be used as cooking oil or used in the manufacture of certain cosmetics and lubricating oils.
Malaysian researchers say they have also made progress in the study of Jatropha. Jatropha grows on barren land and is drought-tolerant. Its seed oil is high and can be used to extract biodiesel. The researchers analyzed and found that the Jatropha genome is about 500 million base pairs.
The researchers said that the analysis of the base pairs of these oil-producing plants helps to identify genes related to their yield and health, and in turn breed more varieties with better yield and disease resistance.