Shake-flask cultivation is a very effective method for growing cells on a laboratory-scale; however, its usefulness is restricted by inter-flask variation and lack of control over the culture environment. In comparison, biorectors confer many advantages for the growth of plant cell and organ cultures. Most biorectors have either mechanical or gas agitation for proper mixing […]

Basal stem rot (BSR) of oil palm is a disease caused by a few species of Genoderma (Idris et al., 2000a, b). It is a major disease inflicting significant losses in Southeast Asia, especially in Malaysia and Indonesia (Turner and Gillbanks, 2003). The disease causes the death of more than 80% of oil palm plantings midway through […]

The basal stem rot (BSR) disease of oil palm is widespread, occuring in major oil palm-growing regions of the world. The disease is caused by a few species of Ganoderma, a basidiomycete fungus (Idris et al., 2000a, b). The effects of Ganoderma infection on productivity decline in oil palm corps have been of considerable concern […]

Technologies for the early detection of Ganoderma have been achieved through a culturing technique using Ganoderma selective medium (GMS) (Ariffin and Idris, 1991), through the molecularpolymerese chain reaction-deoxyribonucleic acid (PRC-DNA) technique (Idris et al., 2004) and the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay-polyclonal antibody (ELISA-Pab) protocol (Idris and Rafidah, 2008). These techniques offer several advantages in providing specificity and sensitivity in Ganoderma detection in oil palm. […]