Breeding and Tissue Culture Unit

Mission

Continuous improvement and generation of elite oil palm planting materials.

Objective

Generation of improved and elite planting material through breeding and clonal propagation, enhanced through the use of molecular tools developed.

Strategic Research Areas
    1. Diversity studies for oil palm
    2. Establishment of a DNA database for oil palm germplasm material
    3. Establishment of a cryopreservation method for storage of germplasm and clonal materials
    4. DNA fingerprinting for our planting material
    5. Marker assisted selection towards improving oil palm breeding material
    6. Genetic resources
    7. Improvement of selection methodology
    8. Establishment of advanced breeding populations
    9. Further exploitation of Elaeis oleifera, interspecific hybrids and backcrosses
    10. Introgression of germplasm into breeding research
    11. Genotyping analysis
    12. Use of –omics technologies to discover biomarkers for improvement of clonal propagation
    13. Epigenetics studies towards understanding the oil palm clonal abnormality and other epigenetically controlled traits
    14. Production of elite clonal palms and specialty palms such as Bactris and Elaeis oleifera.
    15. Development of novel methods for improvement of the tissue culture process.
    16. Development of liquid cultures for improving the efficiency of the tissue culture protocol.
    17. Clonal propagation and breeding to produce planting materials with the following priority traits:

                     – High oil yield
                     – Ganoderma tolerance
                     – High bunch index
                     – Low height
                     – Long stalk

Breeding and Genetics Group
Objective
  1. To develop new and improved oil palm planting materials;
  2. To maintain and conserve germplasm and advanced genetic base for future use;
  3. To accelerate conventional breeding programme for developing and conserving elite oil palm planting materials through molecular approach;
  4. To conduct research on oil palm breeding materials in the field of genetic diversity, markers assisted-selection, fingerprinting and DNA preservation.
Clonal Propagation Group
Objective
  1. Increase efficiency of generation of elite planting materials.
  2. Create a centre of excellence in oil palm biotechnology (plant tissue culture).
  3. Development of improved planting materials.
Epigenetics Group
Objective
  1. Develop methods to detect and evaluate epigenetic modifications and signatures across diverse oil palm tissues.
  2. Identify and test epigenetic marks linked to important traits that could enhance oil palm tissue culture and breeding processes.
  3. Understand how environmental factors influence epigenetic changes in oil palms, helping to develop strategies for more resilient crops.
Breeding & Quantitative Genetics Group Services
Services
  1. Sale of DxP seeds
  2. Sale of genetic materials for seed garden
  3. Leasing of mother palms
  4. Sale of pollen
  5. Consultancies on breeding and seed production
Clonal Propagation Group Services
Services
  1. Sale of ortet
  2. Consultancies on clonal propagation
Printed Publication SPOTME Number of Online Services