POST-GENOMIC TECHNOLOGIES FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF OIL PALM RESEARCH

For a century, Malaysia has been bestowed with oil palm as one of its economic drivers. In the recent decades, the industry witnesses a major breakthrough in oil palm research with the success of oil palm genome sequencing. The access to genome information opens a new door for the crop improvement towards higher yield and quality. Herein, we highlight the harnessing of this opportunity via genetic engineering, coalesced with transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics techniques to lay a foundation for comprehensive and systematic crop advancement programme. With the extensive complement of genes, promoters and constructs for oil palm, and the development of reliable transformation systems, genetic engineering programme has been embarked with an objective to fulfil and sustain the growing global need for oils and fats. The production of transgenic oil palm has been reported and this achievement has further created an opportunity towards genome editing. Spectrometry detection and measurement of oil palm biochemical components aided with chemometrics data interpretation further reinforce post-genomic investigation with in-depth understanding of oil palm biology. The availability of genetic engineering system and the application of omics platform on the genome-wide association study outlined in this article create an unprecedented prospect for oil palm improvement programme.