Characteristics of Fresh Fruit Bunch Yield and the Physicochemical Qualities of Palm Oil during Storage in North Sumatra, Indonesia

This study examines the fresh fruit bunch (FFB) yield and the effect of fruit storage on the quality of palm oil in Bangun Bandar Estate, Dolok Masihul, North Sumatra, with special reference to the physicochemical parameters. The quality of palm oil is mostly determined by the color, free fatty acids (FFAs), moisture, impurities, carotene content, and deterioration of bleachability index (DOBI). The palm fruits were stored in a refrigerator for 0, 7, 14, 21, and 28 days after harvesting before analyzing their carotenoid content, DOBI, FFAs, moisture, and impurities. The results showed that the potency of the crude palm oil (CPO) types, dura, pisifera, and tenera, were 23.5, 26.2, and 23.6%, respectively. The carotenoid content and DOBI of the palm oil types, dura, pisifera, and tenera, were decreased significantly by lengthy storage of the fruit. By contrast, lengthy storage of the fruit significantly increased the FFA, moisture, and impurity contents of these palm oil types, indicating that this reduced the quality of the palm oil. Oil processed from FFB has excellent quality with a high carotene content and DOBI, and a low concentration of FFA, moisture, and impurities. The present study contributes to palm oil stability and nutritional value

Improving the accuracy of genomic predictions in an outcrossing species with hybrid cultivars between heterozygote parents: a case study of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.)

International audienceGenomic selection (GS) is a method of marker-assisted selection revolutionizing crop improvement, but it can still be optimized. For hybrid breeding between heterozygote parents of different populations or species, specific aspects can be considered to increase GS accuracy: (1) training population genotyping, i.e., only genotyping the hybrid parents or also a sample of hybrid individuals, and (2) marker effects modeling, i.e., using population-specific effects of single nucleotide polymorphism alleles model (PSAM) or across-population SNP genotype model (ASGM). Here, this was investigated empirically for the prediction of the performances of oil palm hybrids for yield traits. The GS model was trained on 352 hybrid crosses and validated on 213 independent hybrid crosses. The training and validation hybrid parents and 399 training hybrid individuals were genotyping by sequencing. Despite the small proportion of hybrid individuals genotyped and low parental heterozygosity, GS prediction accuracy increased on average by 5% (range 1.4-31.3%, depending on trait and model) when training was done using genomic data on hybrids and parents compared with only parental genomic data. With ASGM, GS prediction accuracy increased on average by 3% (- 10.2 to 40%, depending on trait and genotyping strategy) compared with PSAM. We conclude that the best GS strategy for oil palm is to aggregate genomic data of parents and hybrid individuals and to ignore the parental origin of marker alleles (ASGM). To gain a better insight into these results, future studies should examine the respective effect of capturing genetic variability within crosses and taking segregation distortion into account when genotyping hybrid individuals, and investigate the factors controlling the relative performances of ASGM and PSAM in hybrid crops