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Oil Palm Tissue Culture: Fast Tracking Elite Commercial Lines

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Abstract

Enhancing oil palm productivity through land expansion is no longer a viable option, and thus, improving yield per hectare is the utmost priority for the Malaysian Oil Palm Industry. In order to produce improved and high-yielding planting materials, the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) has leveraged its rich genetic resource established since 50 years ago through extensive bioprospection as well as augmenting its cloning facilities to fast-track the breeding programmes. Cloning via the tissue culture system is by far the most viable approach to vegetatively propagate elite palms. After more than 33 years of research and development, reliable protocols for both solid and liquid culture systems coupled with various innovative technologies were established. The SureSawitTM Karma biomarker, which is related to clonal abnormality, was developed as a tool for quality assurance of clonal production. To date, clonal trials have been extensively conducted, and the results have been encouraging. Clones such as CPS1, CPS2 and a few others recorded superior performance in comparison with D×P standard crosses. Tissue culture has also enabled selection of clones with special characteristics such as virescens, compactness, high carotene content and other traits for future recloning.

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Ishak, Z. et al. (2020). Oil Palm Tissue Culture: Fast Tracking Elite Commercial Lines. In: Ithnin, M., Kushairi, A. (eds) The Oil Palm Genome. Compendium of Plant Genomes. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22549-0_5

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