Development of tilling methodology for oil palm improvement

Abstract

Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) is one of the most productive oilseed crops and used ill a wide variety of ways worldwide including in food and for fuels. The height of normal oil palm can reach up to 20 m and it is become hard to harvest economically. Plant height is one of the typical traits showing heterosis in many crop plants. It is not only a decisive factor that affects plant architecture, but also an important agronomic trait that contributes to crop yield. The dwarfness is one of the basic characteristic deployed in plant breeding due to its advantageous effects on plant. Therefore, modifying the length of stem is one of the most important targets. Recently, a non-transgenic method for reverse genetics called Targeting Induced Local Lesions IN Genomes (TILLING) was develop as a methodfor inducing and identifying novel genetic variation and has been demonstrated in the model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana. TILLING is a method that uses chemical mutagenesis followed by screening for single-base changes to discover induced mutations. The method uses the eEL I mismatch cleavage enzyme on heteroduplexed DNA strands with detection of end-labeled cleavage product. Here l've focused on the development 0 TILLING methodology for oil palm improvement by focusing on oil palm height as it is easier to harvest dwarfpalms and it is possible to lengthen the replanting cycle.