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Basal stem rot (BSR) disease in oil palm, caused by Ganoderma species, is considered the most destructive disease in the oil palm industry in Southeast Asia. The efficacy of bacteria from the genera Pseudomonas and Burkholderia in controling Ganoderma boninse has been reported. Maizatul and Idris (2009) reported that a pure culture of the endophytic bacterium Pseudomonas syringae, also … Read more

Advantage in biotechnology have led to a significant increase in the use of microbes as biological control agents for plant pathogens. Relatively few of these microbes have been commercialised as bio-control agents due to their inconsistent performance in the field, interactions with non-target organisms, varying rhizosphere or soil colonisation by the bio-control agent, problems in … Read more

Marker-assisted selection (MAS) is the selection of desirable genotypes in conventional breeding using DNA-based diagnostic tools. By applying MAS, palms with the desired genotype can be differentiated early by their DNA, even before the characteristic trait can manifest itself visually. The availability of genetic maps, on which DNA markers such as Simple Sequence Repeats (SSRs) … Read more

Carotenoids are a group of isoprenoid pigments which are widely distributed in nature. They are synthesized by all photosynnthetic bacteria and fungi. Carotenoids protect the photosynthetic apparatus from photo-oxidation, and represent structural components of light-harvesting antenna and reaction-centre complexes. Dietary carotenoids fulfil essential requirements for human and animal nutrition. B-carotene is the most potent dietary … Read more

Modification of carotenoid content especially towards increasing lycopene content is one of the main targets of the oil palm genetic engineering programme at the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) (Parveez et al., 2003). This is due to the potential nutraceutical properties of lycopene. It has been shown that this carotenoid has the greatest ability of … Read more