Abstract
BackgroundElaeis guineensis is the world’s leading source of vegetable oil, and the demand is still increasing. Oil palm breeding would benefit from marker-assisted selection but genetic studies are scarce and inconclusive. This study aims to identify genetic bases of oil palm production using a pedigree-based approach that is innovative in plant genetics.ResultsA quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping approach involving two-step variance component analysis was employed using phenotypic data on 30852 palms from crosses between more than 300 genotyped parents of two heterotic groups. Genome scans were performed at parental level by modeling QTL effects as random terms in linear mixed models with identity-by-descent (IBD) kinship matrices. Eighteen QTL regions controlling production traits were identified among a large genetically diversified sample from breeding program. QTL patterns depended on the genetic origin, with only one region shared between heterotic groups. Contrasting effects of QTLs on bunch number and weights reflected the close negative correlation between the two traits.ConclusionsThe pedigree-based approach using data from ongoing breeding programs is a powerful, relevant and economic approach to map QTLs. Genetic determinisms contributing to heterotic effects have been identified and provide valuable information for orienting oil palm breeding strategies.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-015-1985-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Elaeis guineensis is the world’s leading source of vegetable oil, and the demand is still increasing
In the A × B population, bunch number (BN) and average bunch weight (ABW) were highly and negatively correlated and Fresh fruit bunch yield (FFB) was highly and positively correlated with BN, while it was negatively correlated with ABW (Fig. 1c)
Heritability was lower in heterotic group A than in heterotic group B for the three production traits, with a lower additive genetic variance found in group A (Fig. 1d)
Summary
Elaeis guineensis is the world’s leading source of vegetable oil, and the demand is still increasing. Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) is a perennial allogamous species originating from Africa. It is the world’s leading crop for vegetable oil production (34.7 %, USDA statistics). One main oil palm breeding scheme that is used was developed in the 1950s and is derived from a reciprocal recurrent selection (RRS) scheme, as described by Gascon & De Berchoux [2]. This breeding scheme was designed to take advantage of the heterotic effects on bunch production observed
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