Abstract
Clonal reproduction of oil palm by means of tissue culture is a very inefficient process. Tissue culturability is known to be genotype dependent with some genotypes being more amenable to tissue culture than others. In this study, genetic linkage maps enriched with simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were developed for dura (ENL48) and pisifera (ML161), the two fruit forms of oil palm, Elaeis guineensis. The SSR markers were mapped onto earlier reported parental maps based on amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) markers. The new linkage map of ENL48 contains 148 markers (33 AFLPs, 38 RFLPs and 77 SSRs) in 23 linkage groups (LGs), covering a total map length of 798.0 cM. The ML161 map contains 240 markers (50 AFLPs, 71 RFLPs and 119 SSRs) in 24 LGs covering a total of 1,328.1 cM. Using the improved maps, two quantitative trait loci (QTLs) associated with tissue culturability were identified each for callusing rate and embryogenesis rate. A QTL for callogenesis was identified in LGD4b of ENL48 and explained 17.5% of the phenotypic variation. For embryogenesis rate, a QTL was detected on LGP16b in ML161 and explained 20.1% of the variation. This study is the first attempt to identify QTL associated with tissue culture amenity in oil palm which is an important step towards understanding the molecular processes underlying clonal regeneration of oil palm.
Highlights
Tissue-cultured oil palm clones are in high demand because of their greater uniformity and higher yields compared to conventional seedling material [1]
The projected yield increases of up to 30.0% for clonal palms have met with some skepticism, the oil palm industry is confident that eventually the use of clonal planting material will lead to the ‘‘ wave’’ of yield improvement
The exceptions were palm number 87, which had a difference of 92 explants between the two replicates and palm 75 which was unfit for sampling during the period of the research program
Summary
Tissue-cultured oil palm clones are in high demand because of their greater uniformity and higher yields compared to conventional seedling material [1]. The projected yield increases of up to 30.0% for clonal palms have met with some skepticism, the oil palm industry is confident that eventually the use of clonal planting material will lead to the ‘‘ wave’’ of yield improvement. For this reason in Malaysia twelve oil palm tissue culture laboratories produce annually over two million clonal palms (or ramets), mostly for evaluation within their own organizations [5]
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