Oil Palm Accessions Research Articles

GWAS determined genetic loci associated with callus induction in oil palm tissue culture.

GWAS identified six loci at 25kb downstream of WAK2, a crucial gene for cell wall and callus formation, enabling development of a SNP marker for enhanced callus induction potential. Efficient callus induction is vital for successful oil palm tissue culture, yet identifying genomic loci and markers for early detection of genotypes with high potential of callus induction remains unclear. In this study, immature male inflorescences from 198 oil palm accessions (dura, tenera and pisifera) were used as explants for tissue culture. Callus induction rates were collected at one-, two- and three-months after inoculation (C1, C2 and C3) as phenotypes. Resequencing generated 11,475,258 high quality single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) as genotypes. GWAS was then performed, and correlation analysis revealed a positive association of C1 with both C2 (R = 0.81) and C3 (R = 0.50), indicating that C1 could be used as the major phenotype for callus induction rate. Therefore, only significant SNPs (P ≤ 0.05) in C1 were identified to develop markers for screening individuals with high potential of callus induction. Among 21 significant SNPs in C1, LD block analysis revealed six SNPs on chromosome 12 (Chr12) potentially linked to callus formation. Subsequently, 13 SNP markers were identified from these loci and electrophoresis results showed that marker C-12 at locus Chr12_12704856 can be used effectively to distinguish the GG allele, which showed the highest probability (69%) of callus induction. Furthermore, a rapid SNP variant detection method without electrophoresis was established via qPCR-based melting curve analysis. Our findings facilitated marker-assisted selection for specific palms with high potential of callus induction using immature male inflorescence as explant, aiding ortet palm selection in oil palm tissue culture.

Genetic Variability of Oil Palm in Mexico: An Assessment Based on Microsatellite Markers

Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) has become the largest source of vegetable oil in the world. It is known that all existing genotypes of this species are related, so their genetic variability is considered to be low. In Mexico, all oil palm plantations are located in the southeast of the country, and they are established with different origins seeds, which has caused poor yields and resulted in the need to establish a genetic improvement program. Therefore, in this study, the extent of genetic diversity among 151 oil palm accessions from all producing regions of Mexico was assessed with twenty simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and seven random amplified microsatellite (RAM) markers. The markers utilized proved to be useful in revealing high existing genetic variability, with a total of 1218 and 708 alleles detected and polymorphic information content (PIC) of 0.96 and 0.91 for RAM and SSR, respectively. The genetic distance among all accessions of oil palm collected ranged between 31% and 82% for similarity. Accessions from Tabasco and Veracruz presented the greatest and smallest genetic diversity, respectively. These results can allow breeding strategies to be established for the genetic improvement of this crop in Mexico.

Keragaman Genetik Varietas Kelapa Sawit (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.)

Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) is one of the leading national commodities because of its large contribution to the Indonesian national economy. In the plantation industry, palm oil is known as a commodity that has high value because it is an ingredient for producing palm oil. The genetic diversity of Indonesian oil palm accessions is currently very low. In an effort to increase genetic diversity, germplasm exploration has been carried out at the genetic diversity center of oil palm. In addition to exploration, other efforts have been made to increase genetic variation by introduction. Oil palm is a type of plant that comes from the Arecaceae family. Oil palm plants usually grow on peat soil types spread across the islands of Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi. This is a type of plant that has a fairly high level of risk of being attacked by pests. In its distribution, there are two types of oil palm that are usually cultivated by farmers, namely Elaeis guineensis Jacq., and Elaeis oleifera. Differences in properties can be seen from the morphology of the oil palm fruit endocarp ehich has different levels of thickness as a form of genetic diversity. Oil palm varieties are distinguished by the thickness of the endocarp, and also by the color of the fruit. Based on the thickness of the endocrap, oil palm is divided into three types, namely Pisifera, Dura, and Tenera. If based on the color of the fruit, there are Nigrescens, Virescens, and Albescens. One of the methods that can be used for genetic analysis is Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD).Keywords: diversity, accession, endocarp, palm oil

Developing functional markers for vitamin E biosynthesis in oil palm.

Vitamin E is essential for human health and plays positive roles in anti-oxidation. Previously, we detected large variation in vitamin E content among 161 oil palm accessions. In this study, twenty oil palm accessions with distinct variation in vitamin E contents (171.30 to 1 258.50 ppm) were selected for genetic variation analysis and developing functional markers associated with vitamin E contents. Thirty-seven homologous genes in oil palm belonging to vitamin E biosynthesis pathway were identified via BLASTP analysis, the lengths of which ranged from 426 to 25 717 bp (average 7 089 bp). Multiplex PCR sequencing for the 37 genes found 1 703 SNPs and 85 indels among the 20 oil palm accessions, with 226 SNPs locating in the coding regions. Clustering analysis for these polymorphic loci showed that the 20 oil palm accessions could be divided into five groups. Among these groups, group I included eight oil palm accessions whose vitamin E content (mean value: 893.50 ppm) was far higher than other groups (mean value 256.29 to 532.94 ppm). Correlation analysis between the markers and vitamin E traits showed that 134 SNP and 7 indel markers were significantly (p < 0.05) related with total vitamin E content. Among these functional markers, the indel EgTMT-1-24 was highly correlated with variation in vitamin E content, especially tocotrienol content. Our study identified a number of candidate function associated markers and provided clues for further research into molecular breeding for high vitamin E content oil palm.

Agronomical Performances of Angolan Natural Oil Palm Accessions and Interests for Oil Palm Selection in Côte d’Ivoire

In C&amp;ocirc;te d&amp;rsquo;Ivoire, Deli populations, descendants of four oil palms, constituted Group A of the recurrent reciprocal selection. Their genetic base was narrow, an obstacle to long-term genetic progress. Therefore, Angolan oil palm accessions were acquired to broaden Group A&amp;rsquo;s genetic base. Angola selfed and Deli &amp;times; Angola progenies were tested via Angola selfed &amp;times; La M&amp;eacute; and (Deli &amp;times; Angola) &amp;times; La M&amp;eacute; intergroup hybrids for bunch and oil production, height growth, and tolerance to Fusarium in two progeny trials; one in La M&amp;eacute; (C&amp;ocirc;te d&amp;rsquo;Ivoire) and the other one in Bangun Bandar (Indonesia). On average, bunch yield (183 kg/palm/year) and oil yield (5.34 t/ha) were close to those of the control. The best 5 hybrids represented 104-112% of the control all traits put together. In addition, Angolan origin has transmitted tolerance to Fusarium to its progenies (Fusarium index = 80-90). [(Deli &amp;times; Angola)&amp;rsquo;s LM 5448 T] &amp;times; La M&amp;eacute; hybrids yielded 241.4 kg/palm/year of bunch and 7.30 t/ha of palm oil. Their mean height was comparable to that of the control and the Fusarium index low (82). Therefore, LM 5448 T was selected for further crop improvements. The modalities of its use were proposed.

Sequence-Related Amplified Polymorphism (SRAP) Markers Based Genetic Diversity and Population Structure Analysis of Oil Palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.)

Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) is the key vegetable oil yielded crop and widely distributed in the southern region of China. The present study aimed at analyzing the genetic diversity and population structure of 223 oil palm accessions collected from four provinces of China by using the sequence-related amplified polymorphism (SRAP) markers. A set of 33 SRAP molecular markers were employed to analyze genetic diversity as well as population structure across 223 oil palm accessions. Out of 514 amplified bands, 487 (94.75%) bands were found to be polymorphic. The PIC value (polymorphic information content) of detected bands was from 0.38 to 0.51, with 0.46 of average. The STRUCTURE analysis categorized the 223 oil palm accessions into three subpopulations. The UPGMA based clustering classified them into three major clusters. The correlation between the population subdivisions and the genetic relationships among oil palm accessions was revealed by UPGMA and Bayesian STRUCTURE analyses. The principal coordinate analysis also confirmed a similar grouping of accessions as revealed by the UPGMA dendrogram and STRUCTURE analysis. AMOVA analysis also revealed the variance of 24% among subpopulations and 76% within subpopulations. The present investigation provided valuable information on population structure and genetic diversity of oil palm populations in China for molecular breeding research in oil palm.

Genetic diversity and selection within natural dura oil palm accessions collected in Ghana for oil palm productivity improvement

Abstract. Darkwah DO, Blay E, Amoatey H, Sapey E, Bakoume C, Agyei-Dwarko D. 2020. Genetic diversity and selection within natural dura oil palm accessions collected in Ghana for oil palm productivity improvement. Biodiversitas 21: 3534-3538. The genetic base of oil palm breeding stock of the Ghanaian Oil Palm Research Institute is considered narrow after two selection cycles. Therefore, 79 accessions of natural dura oil palm collected in Ghana and conserved at Oil Palm Research Institute (OPRI) were field evaluated for 18 agro-morphological traits. ANOVA revealed differences among the 79 dura oil palm accessions for 14 traits. The most heritable traits were single fruit weight (h2 = 0.85), leaf area index (h2 = 0.63), bunch weight (h2 = 0.52), total leaf area (h2 = 0.51), and fresh fruit bunch (h2 = 0.46). Genetic coefficients of variation ranged from 3.30% for frond dry weight to 68.74% for total bunch weight denoting possibility of selection of desirable traits for improvement. Five high fresh fruit bunch yielding accessions (FFB ≥ 10.81 t/ha) with good heritable bunch characteristics were selected for introduction in the breeding stocks. In fact, their bunch number, average bunch weight, and mesocarp to fruit were higher, in absolute terms, than the controls and trial mean obtained in the study. Although, the height increment was close to those of the controls, short progenies are expected among descendants from their selfings or crosses.

Development of SSR markers based on transcriptome data and association mapping analysis for fruit shell thickness associated traits in oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.).

Present study mainly aimed to ascertain the distribution characteristics of gene-based microsatellite loci and to develop polymorphic SSR markers from the already available transcriptome data of Elaeis guineensis Jacq, an important oil crop. From this study, we identified the sum of 5791 SSRs across 51,425 unigenes from the transcripts of oil palm. We were able to evaluate 331primer pairs and characterized 183 polymorphic gene-based SSR markers. We identified a total of 506 alleles from the 183 polymorphic SSR loci, with an average of 2.77 alleles per locus. The characterized gene-based SSR markers from the transcriptome data of oil palm exhibited moderate levels of polymorphism with a significant level of heterozygosity ranges from 0.096 to 0.594 (mean = 0.336 ± 0.11). Among the identified SSR markers, sixty polymorphic markers were used to analyze genotypes of 55 oil palm accessions selected from three different provinces of China. Association mapping analysis provided the information of four markers that are associated with fruit shell thickness trait of oil palm. Among the four markers identified from association analysis, one SSR marker obtained from Unigene17150 is strictly associated with the oil palm fruit shell thickness trait.

Assessment of Tolerance to Fusarium Wilt of some Traditional Accessions of Oil Palm (Alaeis guineensis Jacq.) Collected in Man, West of Cote d'Ivoire

The oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) genetic improvement is based on a recurrent reciprocal selection scheme, involving two groups of populations whose production components are complementary. Group A is essentially coming from Asia, while group B includes African oil palm populations. In order to increase genetic variability and to enrich the agronomic qualities of this group B, a survey was carried out in Western Côte d'Ivoire. Twelve traditional genotypes were collected in the Man area. They are known to produce a rather fluid palm oil but their behavior against Fusarium wilt was unknown. Therefore, these traditional populations were subjected to the Fusarium wilt tolerance test. One hundred and sixty (160) two-months-old seedlings of the traditional accessions were distributed in 8 completely randomized blocks and inoculated by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. elaeidis. The appearance of external symptoms on inoculated plantlets was observed over the duration of 5 months, and internal symptoms remarked after plantlets dissection. Index of the Fusarium wilt susceptibility of each progeny was determined. A third of traditional genotypes tested (Dompleu Kp 03, Gbangbegouiné Doua 01, Gbangbegouiné Kla 01 and Gbatonguin Yod 02) proved to be highly tolerant to the wilt disease. Four traditional accessions (Bogouiné Sad 02, Dompleu Kp 01, Dimgouin Zoh 02 and Blolé Dio 05) showed low tolerance, while the last four traditional genotypes (Blolé Oul 03, Koutongouiné Iba 02, Blolé Dio 02 and Dompleu Dou 03) were sensitive to the wilt disease.

Analisis Kekerabatan 50 Aksesi Kelapa Sawit (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) Asal Kamerun Berdasarkan Marka Mikrosatelit

&lt;p&gt;Genetic diversity of the&lt;br /&gt;Indonesian oil palm collection remains low and collection&lt;br /&gt;enrichness through exploration activities from the center of&lt;br /&gt;origins is required. In 2009, 103 oil palm accessions from&lt;br /&gt;Cameroon were collected at the National Oil Palm Genetic&lt;br /&gt;Resources Collection located at the District of Sijunjung,&lt;br /&gt;West Sumatera. The objectives of the present study were to&lt;br /&gt;analayze the 50 Cameroon-originated oil palm accessions in&lt;br /&gt;order to: (1) determine polymorphism levels of the SSR&lt;br /&gt;markers used; (2) understand diversity levels of the oil palm&lt;br /&gt;accessions tested; and (3) analyze accessions potentially&lt;br /&gt;used for germ plasm collection. Fifty oil palm accessions&lt;br /&gt;were used in this study. DNA was isolated from leaves of the&lt;br /&gt;selected individual plants representing each of the&lt;br /&gt;accessions. DNA was analyzed with 12 SSR markers. A&lt;br /&gt;dendrogram was constructed using the UPGMA through&lt;br /&gt;Numerical Taxonomy and Multivariate System program&lt;br /&gt;version 2.1-pc. Results showed that SSR markers used&lt;br /&gt;demonstrated the average number of alleles per locus of 3.6&lt;br /&gt;(2-6). The polymorphism level was 0.53 (0.21-0.73). The&lt;br /&gt;phylogenetic analysis resulted nine clusters with genetic&lt;br /&gt;diversity between two accessions ranged from 4-82%. Ten&lt;br /&gt;accessions (20%) showed low genetic diversity (&amp;lt;10%) but&lt;br /&gt;the accessions demonstrated high diversity in flowering&lt;br /&gt;time. Eleven accessions showed medium diversity level (27-&lt;br /&gt;42%). Five accessions demonstrated high genetic diversity&lt;br /&gt;level (45-82%). A confirmation study using more SSR&lt;br /&gt;markers is recommended. This study finding may be useful&lt;br /&gt;in planning the oil palm germ plasm collection activities.&lt;/p&gt;

Caracterización molecular de palma de aceite Elaeis guineensis Jacq., procedente de diferentes orígenes (Zaire y Camerún) usando marcadores microsatélites

Se determinó la variabilidad genética de 96 accesiones de palma de aceite (&lt;em&gt;E. guineensis&lt;/em&gt; Jacq.) procedentes de Camerún y Zaire con 20 marcadores microsatélites. 59 alelos fueron detectados con un promedio de 2.95, tres loci fueron polimórficos con un PIC (Índice de Información Polimórfica) promedio de 0.58. Se encontró una alta diversidad genética, con una heterocigocidad total de 0.46, y un alto porcentaje de loci polimórficos del 90%. El valor de FST encontrado fue de 0.14, lo cual sugiere que en las poblaciones de Camerún y Zaire existe una moderada estructura poblacional. La heterocigocidad observada (Ho=0.67) fue mayor que la heterocigocidad esperada (He=0.42), evidenciando una baja presencia de homocigotos. Los parámetros de diferenciación poblacional como el FIS y el FIT confirmaron un alto número de heterocigotos con respecto a lo esperado bajo las condiciones de equilibrio Hardy-Weinberg. Los microsatélites permitieron discriminar los genotipos según el lugar de procedencia. Los resultados obtenidos ponen de manifiesto que las colecciones de Camerún y Zaire pueden ser consideradas como una sola población, con moderada estructuración poblacional a pesar del constante flujo génico existente. Estos resultados podrían ser utilizados en futuros programas de conservación, selección y mejoramiento genético de la especie.

Genetic diversity and establishment of a core collection of oil palm (Elaeis guineensisJacq.) based on molecular data

Understanding of genetic diversity and its distribution is essential for promoting the use of genetic resources. The development of core collections using molecular tools has been proposed as a strategy for increasing the economical use and conservation of genetic resources. In this study, we investigated the genetic variation among different geographical origins and potential entries that constituted a core collection of oil palm, using 29 microsatellite markers and by evaluating 788 oil palm accessions. Our results revealed important genetic diversity (HT= 0.759) between oil palm accessions from Angola and Cameroon, which exhibited a low coefficient of genetic differentiation between populations (GST= 0.022). However, the inclusion of oil palm accessions from Indonesia in the analysis resulted in a high coefficient of genetic differentiation between populations (GST= 0.251). We found that the combination of stratified sampling based on a sorting method and a heuristic algorithm was the most effective method for the development of an oil palm core collection set. Using this method, two core collections were identified. The first core collection, comprising 289 entries, contained 271 retained alleles in a sample representing 37% of the entire collection. The second one is a mini core collection, comprising 91 entries, that contained 271 retained alleles with a totalHevalue of 0.72 in a sample representing 11% of the entire collection. The information reported in this study will be of great interest to oil palm researchers because new strategies for breeding programmes can be developed based on these advances.

Seed biometric parameters in oil palm accessions from a Brazilian germplasm bank

The objective of this work was to evaluate the morphological diversity of oil palm seeds and to cluster the accessions according to their morphological characteristics. Forty-one accessions from the oil palm germplasm bank of Embrapa Amazônia Ocidental were evaluated - 18 of Elaeis oleifera and 23 of E. guineensis. The groups were formed based on morphological characteristics, by principal component analysis. In E. oleifera, four groups were formed, tied to their region of origin, but with significant morphological differences between accessions from the same population. For tenera-type E. guineensis seeds, three widely divergent groups were formed, especially as to external parameters, which differentiated them from the other ones. The parameter endocarp thickness stood out in intra- and inter-population differentiation. For dura-type E. guineensis, three groups were formed, with larger seeds and thicker endocarps, which differed from all the other ones. The variability observed for seed characteristics in the analyzed accessions allows the establishment of different groups, to define strategies for genetic improvement.

Germplasm Collection of Highland Palms of Afikpo in Eastern Nigeria

The need for extensive germplasm collection to broaden the genetic base of the oil palm breeding material and to safeguard against crop vulnerability, inherent in growing of uniform and closely related cultivars over wide areas has become imperative. This paper highlights the oil palm germplasm collections from the highland areas of Afikpo in Eastern Nigeria. Fourteen oil palm accessions were collected from ten locations in Afikpo which do not form part of the continuous stretch of the oil palm belt and hitherto unexploited. Data on stem height, bunch weight, bunch length, bunch width, bunch spine length, bunch stalk weight, fruit length and width were recorded in-situ. Mesocarp, kernel, and shell to fruit ratios were computed. Elementary statistics (mean values, range and coefficient of variation) were evaluated using standard procedures. Results revealed very high variation for the fruit and bunch quality traits. It was however interesting to note the inheritance of most of the qualitative traits and their frequencies in the wild. Only nigrescens fruits were encountered in the groves while the dominant genotype for shell, the dura occurred at high frequency. The Ufensi Edda tenera had the highest mesocarp to fruit ratio (73.42%) while heavy bunch weight was recorded for the duras in the Oso Edda and Ndiba Edda groves. Height differences were generally very small in the tenera accessions than in the duras. The prospected fruits have been used to raise seedlings for future planting in the field gene banks following introgression into the breeding programme. Keywords: Afikpo, coefficient of variation, Edda grove, germplasm, mesocarp to fruit ratio, nigrescens

Exploiting an oil palm EST database for the development of gene-derived SSR markers and their exploitation for assessment of genetic diversity

A total of 5,521 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from oil palm were used to search for type and frequency of simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. Dimeric repeat motifs appeared to be the most abundant, followed by tri-nucleotide repeats. Redundancy was eliminated in the original EST set, resulting in 145 SSRs in 136 unique ESTs (114 singletons and 22 clusters). Primers were designed for 94 (69.1%) of the unique ESTs (consisting of 14 consensus and 80 singletons). Primers for 10 EST-SSRs were developed and used to evaluate the genetic diversity of 76 accessions of oil palm originating from seven countries in Africa, and the standard Deli dura population. The average number of observed and effective alleles was 2.56 and 1.84, respectively. The EST-SSR markers were found to be polymorphic with a mean polymorphic information content value of 0.53. Genetic differentiation (FST) among the populations studied was 0.2492 indicating high level of genetic divergence. Moreover, the UPGMA (unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic mean) analysis revealed a strong association between genetic distance and geographic location of the populations studied. The germplasm materials exhibited higher diversity than Deli dura, indicating their potential usefulness in oil palm improvement programmes. The study also revealed that the populations from Nigeria, Congo and Cameroon showed the highest diversity among the germplasm evaluated in this study. The EST-SSRs further demonstrated their worth as a new source of polymorphic markers for phylogenetic analysis, since a high percentage of the markers showed transferability across species and palm taxa.

Assessment of Genetic Diversity in Oil Palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) using Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP)

A total of 359 accessions of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) originating from 11 African countries (Nigeria, Cameroon, Congo DR, Tanzania, Angola, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Ghana, Madagascar and Gambia) were characterized using the RFLP method using the standard Deli dura as the check. Genomic DNA from each sample was digested using five restriction enzymes and hybridized with four oil palm cDNA probes. Data were analyzed using Biosys-1 computer software to calculate the genetic variability parameters. In general, all the collections exhibited higher levels of diversity than the standard variety, Deli dura. The standard variety, Deli dura, lost 36 alleles as compared to the natural populations indicating a reduction in genetic variability. Material from Nigeria showed the highest mean number of alleles per locus (1.9) and percentage of polymorphic loci (67.2%). These findings, combined with others, suggest that Nigeria may be the center of diversity of wild oil palm. It further suggests that oil palm natural populations maybe possessing adequate genetic variability that are potentially useful for improvement programs.

Genetic diversity of Brazilian oil palm (Elaeis oleifera H.B.K.) germplasm collected in the Amazon Forest

Elaeis oleifera or ‘caiaue’, a close relative of oil palm (E. guineensis), has some agronomic traits of great interest for the oil palm genetic breeding such as slow growth, oil quality (mostly unsaturated) and disease resistance. An analysis of a Brazilian oil palm germplasm collection was carried out using RAPD (Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA) markers with the objective of understanding the genetic variation of ‘caiaue’ accessions collected in the Amazon Forest in the last two decades. A sample of 175 accessions obtained along the Amazon River Basin was analyzed and compared to 17 accessions of oil palm from Africa. Ninety-six RAPD markers were used in the analysis, of which fourteen were shown to be specific to oil palm, while twelve were specific to ‘caiaue’. Results showed that the Brazilian ‘caiaue’ accessions studied have moderate levels of genetic diversity as compared to oil palm accessions. The data allowed the establishment of similarity groups for ‘caiaue’ accessions, which is useful for selecting parental plants for population breeding. Cluster analysis showed that, in general, genetic similarities are not correlated to geographical distances, but consistent with geographical dispersal along the Amazon River network. AMOVA showed that most of the genetic variation is found within populations, as expected for anallogamous and long-lived perennial species. The study provides important information to define strategies for future collection expeditions, for germplasm conservation and for the use of E. oleifera in breeding programs.

Assessment of nuclear, mitochondrial and chloroplast RFLP markers in oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.)

A variety of DNA probes was used to screen a diverse set of oil palm accessions in order to identify markers with a utility in genotype discrimination. This survey included samples of the commercial oil palm native to Africa (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.), the closely-related South American species [E.oleifera (HBK) Cortes] and inter-specific hybrids of the two. Of 106 major chloroplast bands none showed differences between E. guineensis and E. Oleifera. Mitochondrial and ribosomal probes were more informative inter-specifically (the former allowing identification of the maternal inheritance of mitochondria) and may be useful in hybrid breeding programmes; however, they were unable to identify polymorphism within E. guineensis. In contrast, low-copy nuclear genomic clones were able to identify intra-specific variation, though in most cases they revealed a relatively small number of allelic variants. One DNA probe showed a much larger number of band variants, revealing ten patterns amongst 13 E. guineensis accessions, and should prove useful in genetic fingerprinting and evaluation of oil-palm germplasm collections.