Understanding diversity and structure of Elaies oleifera and Elaeis guineensis germplasm Genome sequencing and assembly. Elaeis

Palm oil is one of the highest consumed oil in the world, reaching three billion people in 150 countries. Although oil palm is primarily used for food, it is increasingly being used for industrial applications (i.e. biofuels, machine lubricants, soap etc.). Oil palm is the most efficient oil seed crop in the world—producing ten times more oil than other leading oilseed crops. Worldwide consumption of palm oil is predicted to double by 2050 and with limited agricultural land, there is a pressing need to improve commercial oil palm varieties. African origin E. guineensis is the current variety used for commercial breeding with a very limited genetic base. Low genetic diversity has been a major obstacle towards increasing crop yield and breeding other desirable traits. In addition to increasing oil yield, oil palm diseases are another major concern in the oil palm industry. Diseases such as fatal yellowing and lethal bud rot have swept through South America causing devastating damage to oil palm plantations. With limited genetic diversity, current commercial palms in South East Asia are highly susceptible to these diseases. Because many countries’ economies are dependent on palm oil, damage to oil palm plantations can cause serious economic losses. Identifying natural genetic variation in wild populations of oil palm will enable breeders to introduce favorable genetic variants into the current commercial palms. E. oleifera, a sister species of E. guineensis, possess genetic variation associated with disease resistance, higher quality of oils and smaller palms—traits that are not characteristic of E. guineensis. Since these two sister species readily hybridize, interspecific hybridization approach is a viable method to introgress favorable E. oleifera traits into the commercial E. guineensis varieties. In collaboration with the Malaysian Oil Palm Board (MPOB), wild oil palm populations sampled from Central and South America will be sequenced to identify natural genetic variants associated with traits of interest. Our group will use evolutionary principles and population genomic tools to optimize breeding programs to implement interspecies introgression of wild alleles into cultivated oil palm varieties.