Cloning program for oil palm compact varieties by ASD of Costa Rica : realities and commercial potential
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Author
Alvarado, Amancio
Guzmán, Nidia
Chinchilla, Carlos
Escobar, Ricardo
Como citar
Publicación:
Revista Palmas; Vol. 28 Núm. especial, (2007); 256-264
0121-2923
Revista Palmas; Vol. 28 Núm. especial, (2007); 256-264
0121-2923
Abstract
For the time being, the problem of mantled fruit is considered irrelevant for the oil palm clones production program of ASD of Costa Rica, given it has appeared only in one clone and with a very low incidence. Over 1.000 hectares have been planted since 2005 with clonal material in different countries of America and Asia. The low rate of abnormalities in clones is due to the use of a ?safe protocol? at the lab, which includes the use of young inflorescences as explants, the induction of embryogenesis in solid means with low concentrations of growth regulators, the proliferation of embryoids and the development of shoots in a medium without regulators and an efficient radical system. The use of inflorescences allows a repeated sampling in the same elite plant every 6-8 months, which indicates the little damage done to the plant during tissue extraction and enables an increase in commercial productivity. At the present time the laboratory has the capacity of producing half a million ramets per year and there are plans to expand it so as to achieve 5 million. An additional innovation to the program is the clone reproduction of compact varieties, which have the possibility of being planted in high densities and of giving a better use to the land resource. The compact material comes from a specific plant, segregated from an open pollination crossing of Elaeis oleifera x e. guineensis; the outstanding characteristics of this palm, known as original compact palm, is its reduced growth rate of its trunk and its short leaves. Notwithstanding this, the original compact palm?s bunches have a very poor composition, mainly low mesocarp and oil contents; consequently it was necessary to do introgression with the genes of the ?guineensis? population so as to improve the oil potential production of the original compact palm or OCP. Three back-crossing cycles have taken place, which took over 33 years of on-going breeding. The new step is to introduce ?ortets? of a new generation of compact palms with a higher potential, which were planted as of 1996. Moreover, this gives the possibility of using densities of 180 or more palms per hectare (which in turn, increases the amount of fruit per unit area), many of the selected elite palms (ortets) also have a high oil extraction rate, as a result of this the commercial potential of these compact materials is higher than that of a clone coming from e. guineensis. ASD de Costa Rica inició el programa para la producción de clones de palma aceitera en la década del ochenta, y los primeros lotes comerciales se sembraron en 2002, luego de que varias parcelas experimentales, plantadas desde 1997, mostraran alto potencial comercial y escasa ocurrencia de anormalidades en las plantas. Hasta el año 2005, se habían sembrado más de 1.000 hectáreas de material clonal en varios países en América y Asia. Se considera que la baja tasa de anormalidades en los clones producidos por ASD se debe al uso de un ?protocolo seguro? de laboratorio, que incluye el uso de inflorescencias jóvenes como fuente de ?explantes?, la inducción de la embriogénesis en medios sólidos con bajas concentraciones de reguladores de crecimiento, la proliferación de embriones y el desarrollo de brotes en medios sin reguladores, y un sistema eficiente de enraizamiento. El uso de inflorescencias permite el muestreo repetido en una misma planta superior cada 6-8 meses, de manera que la planta poco se maltrata durante la extracción del tejido, y también incrementa la productividad comercial. En la actualidad, el laboratorio tiene la capacidad de producir medio millón de ramets por año, y existen planes para expandirlo hasta los cinco millones. Además del uso de inflorescencias, otra innovación del programa es la reproducción clonal de variedades compactas, que tienen el potencial de ser plantadas a altas densidades, y con ello hacer un uso más eficiente del recurso tierra. El material compacto se deriva de una palma particular, producto de un cruce de polinización abierta de elaeis oleífera x E. guineensis. Las características sobresalientes de esta palma, conocida como palma compacta original (PCO), fueron su tasa reducida de crecimiento del tronco y sus hojas cortas. No obstante, los racimos de la PCO tenían bajos contenidos de mesocarpio y aceite, por lo que fue necesario introgresar genes de la población guineensis, para mejorar la composición del racimo. Muchas palmas recombinantes de este programa, plantadas entre 1978 y 1986, resultaron excepcionales, no solo por su producción de aceite sino también por su crecimiento vegetativo. Su tasa de incremento de la altura del tronco es reducida (0,5 m /año), y sus hojas son más cortas que las variedades tradicionales. Estas palmas son ahora fuente de ?explantes? para el programa de clonación, pues los clones derivados de ellas tienen el potencial de ser sembrados a densidades de 180 o más plantas por hectárea. El próximo paso incluye la incorporación de ortets de una nueva generación compacta sembrada a partir de 1996, que posee mayor potencial comercial.
For the time being, the problem of mantled fruit is considered irrelevant for the oil palm clones production program of ASD of Costa Rica, given it has appeared only in one clone and with a very low incidence. Over 1.000 hectares have been planted since 2005 with clonal material in different countries of America and Asia. The low rate of abnormalities in clones is due to the use of a ?safe protocol? at the lab, which includes the use of young inflorescences as explants, the induction of embryogenesis in solid means with low concentrations of growth regulators, the proliferation of embryoids and the development of shoots in a medium without regulators and an efficient radical system. The use of inflorescences allows a repeated sampling in the same elite plant every 6-8 months, which indicates the little damage done to the plant during tissue extraction and enables an increase in commercial productivity. At the present time the laboratory has the capacity of producing half a million ramets per year and there are plans to expand it so as to achieve 5 million. An additional innovation to the program is the clone reproduction of compact varieties, which have the possibility of being planted in high densities and of giving a better use to the land resource. The compact material comes from a specific plant, segregated from an open pollination crossing of Elaeis oleifera x e. guineensis; the outstanding characteristics of this palm, known as original compact palm, is its reduced growth rate of its trunk and its short leaves. Notwithstanding this, the original compact palm?s bunches have a very poor composition, mainly low mesocarp and oil contents; consequently it was necessary to do introgression with the genes of the ?guineensis? population so as to improve the oil potential production of the original compact palm or OCP. Three back-crossing cycles have taken place, which took over 33 years of on-going breeding. The new step is to introduce ?ortets? of a new generation of compact palms with a higher potential, which were planted as of 1996. Moreover, this gives the possibility of using densities of 180 or more palms per hectare (which in turn, increases the amount of fruit per unit area), many of the selected elite palms (ortets) also have a high oil extraction rate, as a result of this the commercial potential of these compact materials is higher than that of a clone coming from e. guineensis.
Palabras clave:
palma de aceite
elaeis guineensis
clonación
mejora genética
producción de aceite
Costa Rica
sector palmicultor
palma de aceite
elaeis guineensis
clonación
mejora genética
producción de aceite
Costa Rica
sector palmicultor