Oil Palm Genomics

Published Date
Palm Oil
2012, Pages 59–86, doi:10.1016/B978-0-9818936-9-3.50006-X

• Author 

• Meilina Ong Abdullah
• Maria Madon
• Eng Ti Leslie Low
• Maizura Ithnin
• Rajinder Singh

Publisher Summary

Plant genomics is reversing the previous paradigm of identifying genes behind biological functions and instead focuses on finding biological functions behind genes. The oil palm belongs to the genus Elaeis, which contains two species, E. Guineensis and E. oleifera. It is regarded as the most efficient oil-bearing crop in the world compared to other crops of the same genre in terms of land use. However, the oil yield of oil palm has reached stagnation of late and there is an urgent need for improvement. Hence, this chapter discusses the current trend of leveraging genomics in the production of new and improved planting materials. The genomic platforms form the resource toward achieving the target of producing superior oil palms. As with other plant genomes, the oil palm has now been sequenced and with the plummeting price of sequencing as time goes by, more genomes will follow suit. Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) is known to have the largest oil palm germplasm collection in the world. That is an ideal source for identifying new alleles essential for breeding.

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Copyright © 2012 AOCS Press. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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