Towards the fourth decade of IOPRI’s oil palm clones: Upcoming new variety

Abstract

Abstract Experience of IOPRI on oil palm tissue culture would be four decades in 2024. The first decade was theperiod of oil palm clone development and field testing. The second decade was a setback for oil palm research because of a high percentage of oil palm clone abnormalities in the field. Moving on from these experiences, tissueculture systems such as: including improving the protocol, controlling the duration of callus induction, delimitating the number of subcultures, and building of oil palm clones database, were managed to be improved. In this way, alow abnormality level is under control and each clone is traceable. It is also noted that the oil palm clone provides20-30% higher production than that derived from DxP crossing seed due to the more uniform growth of generatedplants. Besides the protocol, ortet selection is also key to improvement. Ortets are elite plants from selected progeny testing or re-clone of the progeny testing. Molecular analysis is applied as a control of genetic variation possibility, which may occur in a particular phase due to specific stimuli. However, until the present time, a clonevariety has not been released yet. Therefore, in the fourth decade, mass production is expected and oil palm clonevarieties will officially be released and commercialized