Differential effects of glutamine and arginine on 7S globulin accumulation during the maturation of oil palm somatic embryos

The low vigour of plantlets resulting from oil palm somatic embryos may be due to insufficient levels of deposited storage proteins. Thus, in order to improve embryonic maturation and the vigour of regenerated plantlets, we investigated the effects of modifying the culture conditions with respect to the accumulation of the major oil palm storage proteins, the 7S globulins. In this study, the effect of arginine and glutamine on globulin accumulation was studied using somatic embryos of two different genotypes. Arginine and glutamine were both found to enhance protein accumulation but in different ways, which were best illustrated by measurements of soluble proteins per embryo and 7S globulin content per dry weight. Arginine increased the level of soluble proteins by 46% irrespective of the clone, and glutamine by 19% and 63% depending on the clone. The clone which accumulated the least protein in the presence of glutamine was that which contained the more protein initially. Only arginine favoured the accumulation of 7S globulin content per dry weight, irrespective of the clone considered (+26%). This study will enable further investigations of specific storage proteins as potential markers for regenerated plantlets vigour. Received: 22 July 1997 / Revision received: 6 January 1998 / Accepted: 1 December 1998