Framework for genetic improvement of oil yield and harvestability in oil palm

Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) contributes 35% of global vegetable oil and has become the most important oil crop in the world. It occupies only 7% of total global oilseed-harvested land with 10 times more oil yield per hectare of cropland than any other oil crop. To further improve the superior...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Teh, Chee Keng
Format: Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
Language:English
Published: 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/66648/
_version_ 1848800347495071744
author Teh, Chee Keng
author_facet Teh, Chee Keng
author_sort Teh, Chee Keng
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) contributes 35% of global vegetable oil and has become the most important oil crop in the world. It occupies only 7% of total global oilseed-harvested land with 10 times more oil yield per hectare of cropland than any other oil crop. To further improve the superior oil yield, enormous efforts have been put into selective breeding programmes in the last eight decades. Nevertheless, the breeding progress of oil palm, like other perennial crops, is extremely slow (typically 12 years per breeding cycle) and costly. In this study, major QTL (quantitative trait loci) for trunk height (THT) and correlated yield traits were discovered in low trunk increment breeding populations using single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. Further understanding of the correlation between THT and oil yield traits, and the effect of cumulative positive alleles of QTL can significantly increase the success rate of multiple trait integration through MAS to produce high-yielding oil palms with low height increment. This compares to an estimated 1% probability of success using conventional breeding methods. Furthermore, illegitimacy in breeding crosses and commercial seed production can be a common problem, if mismanagement happens in controlled pollination (given that oil palm is a naturally outcrossing species) and seed processing. For perennial crops such as oil palm, the illegitimacy problem can easily badly effect a 12-year breeding cycle and illegitimacy can lead to a 25-year yield reduction in commercial planting. Therefore, a practical genomic SNP-based legitimacy testing method with accuracy >97% was developed as a standard quality control procedure for seed purity in breeding and commercial seed production. The method has also successfully addressed the inaccuracy and inefficiency of the conventional fruit census test for contamination. The overall objectives of this study and findings are reported in the thesis.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T20:50:07Z
format Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
id nottingham-66648
institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
language English
last_indexed 2025-11-14T20:50:07Z
publishDate 2022
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling nottingham-666482025-02-28T15:13:28Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/66648/ Framework for genetic improvement of oil yield and harvestability in oil palm Teh, Chee Keng Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) contributes 35% of global vegetable oil and has become the most important oil crop in the world. It occupies only 7% of total global oilseed-harvested land with 10 times more oil yield per hectare of cropland than any other oil crop. To further improve the superior oil yield, enormous efforts have been put into selective breeding programmes in the last eight decades. Nevertheless, the breeding progress of oil palm, like other perennial crops, is extremely slow (typically 12 years per breeding cycle) and costly. In this study, major QTL (quantitative trait loci) for trunk height (THT) and correlated yield traits were discovered in low trunk increment breeding populations using single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. Further understanding of the correlation between THT and oil yield traits, and the effect of cumulative positive alleles of QTL can significantly increase the success rate of multiple trait integration through MAS to produce high-yielding oil palms with low height increment. This compares to an estimated 1% probability of success using conventional breeding methods. Furthermore, illegitimacy in breeding crosses and commercial seed production can be a common problem, if mismanagement happens in controlled pollination (given that oil palm is a naturally outcrossing species) and seed processing. For perennial crops such as oil palm, the illegitimacy problem can easily badly effect a 12-year breeding cycle and illegitimacy can lead to a 25-year yield reduction in commercial planting. Therefore, a practical genomic SNP-based legitimacy testing method with accuracy >97% was developed as a standard quality control procedure for seed purity in breeding and commercial seed production. The method has also successfully addressed the inaccuracy and inefficiency of the conventional fruit census test for contamination. The overall objectives of this study and findings are reported in the thesis. 2022-02-27 Thesis (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en cc_by https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/66648/1/PhD%20Thesis_%20Teh%20Chee%20Keng_UNMKL18024943.pdf Teh, Chee Keng (2022) Framework for genetic improvement of oil yield and harvestability in oil palm. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham. oil palm oil yield vegetable oil oil crop
spellingShingle oil palm
oil yield
vegetable oil
oil crop
Teh, Chee Keng
Framework for genetic improvement of oil yield and harvestability in oil palm
title Framework for genetic improvement of oil yield and harvestability in oil palm
title_full Framework for genetic improvement of oil yield and harvestability in oil palm
title_fullStr Framework for genetic improvement of oil yield and harvestability in oil palm
title_full_unstemmed Framework for genetic improvement of oil yield and harvestability in oil palm
title_short Framework for genetic improvement of oil yield and harvestability in oil palm
title_sort framework for genetic improvement of oil yield and harvestability in oil palm
topic oil palm
oil yield
vegetable oil
oil crop
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/66648/