FELDA Global Ventures Holdings Berhad (FGV)’s involvement in tissue culture began in 1980s and since 2010, the FGV Innovation Centre (FGVIC) has successfully produced 1.0 million tissue-cultured oil palm ramets annually.
In addition to oil palm tissue culture planting materials, FGVIC has also actively produced banana ramets to accommodate the varied needs of customers.
The centre has developed, through its intense tissue culture research activities its very own “secret recipes” such as PLANTgerminus and EZgrow for industry players.
These products are [ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”2,3,5″ ihc_mb_template=”1″ ] successfully used in FGVIC for in vitro oil palm tissue culture processes for all stages such as, callogenesis, embryogenesis, shoot development and rooting success.
The products have also been used for developing other crops such as banana, tongkat ali, rubber and sugarcane.
Tissue Culture R&D Activities
The main activities of the FGVIC’s tissue culture research are:
- Consultancy/training & contract cloning Services
- Tissue culture efficiency improvement programme for cost reduction
- Suspension culture
- Oil palm cloning of amenable and non-amenable progeny
- Oil palm cloning of specific trait (Dura, Pisifera and others)
- Cloning of other crops (rubber, sugarcane, banana, etc)
Consultation/Training & Contract Services
FGVIC provides consultation/training & contract services in plant tissue culture work interested individuals or industry players.
FGVIC’s consultation services focus on oil palm cloning for large scale production, banana cloning for large scale production, and consultancy for development of tissue culture facilities.
FGVIC also provides contract services for cloning planting materials according to customer or industry requirements based on starting materials provided by customers.
Tissue culture efficiency improvement programme for cost reduction
FGVIC carries out continuous improvement programmes for cloning of oil palm and other crops to further improve efficiency in cloning systems and further reduce the cost.
Suspension Culture
Suspension culture is a part of our tissue culture improvement programme. Our suspension culture programme currently focuses in growing oil palm embryogenic cells in liquid suspension systems.
The ramets are planted in trial areas for abnormality monitoring. Our abnormality rate in trial areas is at an average 3.0%.
Oil Palm Cloning of amenable and non-amenable progeny
FGVIC also provides services in oil palm cloning for high yielding palms of customers’ specific interests (whether from amenable or non-amenable progeny).
Oil palm cloning of specific traits (Dura, Pisifera and others)
Cloning of oil palm specific traits is also one of the activities carried out at the FGVIC tissue culture research department.
Cloning of Dura mother palms and Pisifera father palms for obtaining semi-clonal and bi-clonal seeds has been carried out since 2001. Cloning specific traits has become our routine activity in FGVIC and we offer the services to individuals or the industry at large.
Cloning of other crops (banana, rubber, sugarcane)
Banana cloning is done commercially in FGVIC to provide banana planting materials.
We currently focus on cloning pisang berangan and provide services in cloning other variety of bananas depending on demand by our customers.
In providing this service, we use the FGVIC standard banana cloning system.
Contract cloning services for other crops such as tongkat ali, rubber and sugarcane to obtain robust planting materials is also available for those who are interested.
For all our tissue cloning processes we use PLANTgerminus at callogenesis and embryogenesis stage and EZgrow at shoot development and root induction stage.
PLANTgerminus & EZgrow
PLANTgerminus and EZgrow have been developed specifically for plant tissue culture needs. PLANTgerminus is designed for callogenesis and embryogenesis stages, whereas EZgrow is for shoot and root development stages. PLANTgerminus and EZgrow are supplemented into the plant tissue culture media during media preparation process depending on specific needs.
NOTE
: The writer is a Lead Researcher of Tissue Culture
Research Unit at FGVR&D, a subsidiary of FGV Holdings Berhad. She has 15 years’ experience with specialisation in plant tissue culture of oil palm and other crops, for research as well as for large scale production. Her main focus is on tissue culture efficiency improvement programme for cost reduction for FGV oil palm clonal production. Currently, she provides consultation and research contract services of clonal production for oil palm and cash crops. For more information, visit http://www.feldaglobal.com/our-business/plantation/rd-services or drop an email to shabsah.r@feldaglobal.com.
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