Malaysian Scientists Successful in Cracking Oil Palm Genome
May 22, 2009| |
Scientists at Sime Darby, a leading global plantation company have successfully completed the sequencing, assembling and annotation of the oil palm genome with 93.8% completeness. This is a milestone in enhancing the productivity and sustainability of this important commodity crop.
Asiatic Development Bhd through its subsidiary Asiatic Center for Genome Technology Sdn Bhd (ACGT) and the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) are also striving to sequence the oil palm genome, with the latter planning to complete assembling and annotation before the end of the year. MPOB's chairman Datuk Sabri Ahmad said that the genome technology will play a crucial role in developing diagnostic tools for the identification and characterization of expression markers of the oil palm. Industry consultant M.R. Chandran said Sime Darby's genetic engineering technology could complement the current conventional oil palm breeding materials. A partnership between Sime Darby, Synamatix and 454 Life Sciences, a Roche company, has been established to fully characterize the genome of oil palm.
For more news about biotechnology in Malaysia, email Mahaletchumy Arujanan of the Malaysian Biotechnology Information Center at maha@bic.org.my.
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