A genetic platform for predicting and reducing non-tenera contamination in oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) seed supply

Optimal oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) crop yields rely on the purity of the tenera fruit form. The high yielding hybrid tenera fruit form is the consequence of heterozygosity for one of nine genetic variants within the SHELL gene. High-throughput genotyping allows cost-efficient screening prior to planting to decrease unintentional non-tenera palm cultivation. We present a paradigm for dramatically reducing non-tenera cultivation by SHELL genotyping a ~ 10% sampling of seeds per seed production fruit bunch. Identification and seed supply chain removal of bunches above a predetermined non-tenera threshold represent a new paradigm for applying SHELL genetic testing in the industry. In a demonstration involving 121,896 embryos from 1304 independent dura x pisifera controlled crosses from two independent seed production units, we found that 38.4% of bunches achieved a 100% pure tenera prediction rate. The remaining bunches (61.6%) had predicted non-tenera contamination ranging from 1.0 to 89.6%, with an overall average of 3.32% seeds per bunch. SHELL genotyping of expected tenera embryos identified rare aneuploid embryos, confirmed by whole genome sequencing-based heterozygosity and copy number analyses.