| Summary: | Makapuno is a mutant coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) with over proliferating endosperm, occurring in the Philippines and Dutch East Indies. Its fruit is almost full of viscous and delicious endosperm, commercially useful in making ice cream, pie and other delicacies. The science behind the makapuno phenomenon has not been completely understood. To determine the molecular basis of the makapuno phenomenon, we designed primers and cloned genes involved in cytokinin biosynthesis, polyamine synthesis, glactomannan degradation, glycolysis, alcoholic fermentation, fatty acid biosynthesis and cell cycle regulation. The total RNA from normal and makapuno endosperms of coconut were isolated and reversed transcribed. The cDNAs were used as template for PCR. The PCR products were ligated into pGEM T Easy vector, cloned in Escherichia coli JM19 cells and sequenced. A total of thirteen partial cDNA sequences were obtained. Interproscan and BLAST analyses revealed the cDNAs contain conserved domains and are highly homologous (68-98%) to equivalent sequences from other plant species. Pairwise alignment (Blossom 62) of the thirteen partial cDNAs between normal and mutant makapuno coconut revealed absence of nucleotide sequence differences implying no structural differences in the genes of the two coconut genotypes. The makapuno and normal coconut used in this study are of the same Laguna Tall variety.
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