Decoding Secrets of Oil Palm Genome

I attended the invitation by Sime Darby on its announcement of a breakthrough discover which was graced by the Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Najib at KLCC yesterday. All participants were clueless on what the new discovery were all about as there were no hints stated on the invitation card. It was unveiled that the breakthrough was indeed the complete sequencing, assembling and annotating of oil palm genome, a project initiated a few years ago with the collaboration from experts from MIT, USA costing the company some RM40 million. The application of this breakthrough were said to be able to produce extremely productive oil palm trees that would increase the productivity of oil palm by a whopping 100%, from the current oil yield per hectare per year of 5 mt to 10 mt.

It was a very impressive breakthrough indeed, but how can this innovation be applied to produce super gene palms or genetically modified palms which could turn the conventional breeding upside down remains to be seen. In the past, many research findings were launched in very high profile manner but suffered natural death just a couple of years later. I hope this unparalleled breakthrough of Sime Darby will go along way not only producing high yielding varieties that will give higher return to the plantation companies but also benefiting small holders and also human race as palm oil can be used as bio-fuel to reduce the dependent on the exhaustive fosil fuel.