Breeding the oil palm (Elaeis guineensisJacq.) for climate change

Abstract

-Breeding the oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) for climate change requires multidisciplinary and collaborative research by nature: indeed -besides genetics and structural and functional genomics -almost all disciplines related to life sciences are involved. Research work also relies on the identification of genetic variation in the strategies of response to stress developed by the plant: this implies the exploration of resources provided by natural variation, germplasm collections, selected genitors from breeding programs together with material of interest collected from smallholders. The phenotyping of selected plant material under biotic/abiotic stress will involve new methods for high-throughput phenotyping and genomic approaches will be followed for the identification of genes underlying the variation of traits which will be used as selection targets. Also, improvements in understanding how climate change may influence chemical and physical processes in soils, how this may affect nutrient availability, and how the plant responds to changed availability of nutrients will also influence oil palm breeding programs. Molecular approaches and tools have great potential to optimize patterns of plant breeding, especially for perennial species. In recent years, there has been an exponential increase in molecular resources and methods aimed at identifying polymorphisms which control the traits of interest and exploring the mechanisms linking these polymorphisms to phenotypes. With genomic resources becoming increasingly available for the oil palm (sequencing, resequencing and chips development) the exploration of the genetic basis of complex traits such as oil yield or resistance to disease is now possible. Consequently the availability and sharing of such a large amount of data is currently reshaping most of oil palm breeding strategies.Keywords: adaptability / drought / genomics / phenotyping / plasticity / polymorphism / sex ratio Résumé -Sélection génétique du palmier à l'huile ( Elaeis guineensis Jacq. ) et changement climatique.La sélection génétique du palmier à huile pour faire face au changement climatique exige par nature une recherche pluridisciplinaire et collaborative : en effet, outre la génétique et la génomique structurelle et fonctionnelle, presque toutes les disciplines liées aux sciences de la vie sont impliquées. Ce travail de recherche intégratif nécessite également de pouvoir estimer la variation génétique dans les processus de réponse au stress développés par les plantes : il implique une exploration des ressources offertes par la variation génétique naturelle, les collections de germoplasme, les meilleurs géniteurs issus des programmes de sélection, ainsi que par le matériel d'intérêt recueilli auprès des petits exploitants. Le phénotypage du matériel végétal sélectionné sous stress biotique ou abiotique va impliquer de nouvelles méthodes de phénotypage à haut débit et des approches génomiques devront être suivies pour l'identification des gènes à la source de variations dans des car...

Climate change affecting oil palm agronomy, and oil palm cultivation increasing climate change, require amelioration

“…However, the premise that stress conditions (Paterson et al., , ) caused by CC is likely to increase OP disease is justified in the current authors’ opinion. Furthermore, Rival () implies that, inter alia , CC will increase diseases and pests of OP, hence corroborating the premise. Paterson et al.…”

“…A caveat being potential biodiversity and ecological function loss if novel areas are converted from, for example, forest. A premium will be placed on being able to grow OP in suboptimal conditions, for example, by breeding for new varieties (Rival, ) and/or ensuring that conditions are as suitable as possible for growth of the palms as discussed herein. Detailed descriptions of where the climate becomes more apt for OP are provided in Paterson et al.…”

“…(, ) provide information on the types of stress involved. New regions will become increasingly suitable for OP cultivation with CC although with a risk that novel disease may threaten the crop (Rival, ). This is supportive to the hypothesis that CC will cause more disease.…”

“…Most crude palm oil is used in food and biodiesel production, while palm kernel oil is employed in detergents, cosmetics, plastics, and chemicals. Sustainable OP involves challenges (Rival, ), and, for example, development on peatlands appears a myth (Evers, Yule, & Padfield, ).…”

Genomic and transcriptomic approaches toward plant selection

“…How do plant genomes and the omics approaches help plant improvement? The data from interdisciplinary tools mainly as genomics and transcriptomics are subject to a very good assistance in plant breeding (Rival, 2017). Genomes and transcriptomes are two main core of Omics and provide the input data for subsequent bioanalysis tools/approaches by which many more results are obtainable and reachable.…”