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In digital agriculture, accurate crop detection is fundamental to developing automated systems for efficient plantation management. For oil palm, the main challenge lies in developing robust models that perform well in different environmental conditions. This study addresses the feasibility of using GAN augmentation methods to improve palm detection models. For this purpose, drone images of young palms (< 5 year-old) from eight different estates were collected, annotated, and used to build a baseline detection model based on DETR. StyleGAN2 was trained on the extracted palms and then used to generate a series of synthetic palms, which were then inserted into tiles representing different environments. CycleGAN networks were trained for bidirectional translation between synthetic and real tiles, subsequently utilized to augment the authenticity of synthetic tiles. Both synthetic and real tiles were used to train the GAN-based detection model. The baseline model achieved precision and recall values of 95.8% and 97.2%. The GAN-based model achieved comparable result, with precision and recall values of 98.5% and 98.6%. In the challenge dataset 1 consisting older palms (> 5 year-old), both models also achieved similar accuracies, with baseline model achieving precision and recall of 93.1% and 99.4%, and GAN-based model achieving 95.7% and 99.4%. As for the challenge dataset 2 consisting of storm affected palms, the baseline model achieved precision of 100% but recall was only 13%. The GAN-based model achieved a significantly better result, with a precision and recall values of 98.7% and 95.3%. This result demonstrates that images generated by GANs have the potential to enhance the accuracies of palm detection models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The level of free fatty acids (FFAs) is an important oil quality index that is consistently measured at mills and refineries to ensure that palm oil is within specification limits. FFAs can accumulate at any point throughout the process, for example, during fresh fruit bunch (FFB) harvesting or during the mill process before sterilisation. Another key contributor to FFA build-up is loose fruit (LF), which is collected following FFB harvesting and is commonly processed together with FFB into crude palm oil (CPO) at the mill. The aim of this study was to identify pivotal points of FFA formation during the process of crude palm oil production. Results: The present study shows that the highest FFA accumulation occurred during the conveying process at the mill before sterilisation due to significant fruit damage. The rapid formation of FFA occurred during the first 15 min of oil palm fruit bruising. A minimum temperature of 60 °C for one hour was needed to deactivate the lipase activity, which is responsible for FFA formation. Blending high-FFA CPO with standard CPO affected indices of palm oil quality, such as the deteriorated peroxide value (PV) and anisidine value (AV), and particularly worsened the bleachability index (DOBI). Conclusions: This study suggests that the conveyor system in the mill could be the prime area to focus on in terms of FFA reduction, along with minimising bruising events. In addition, loose fruits (LF) with high FFA content should be processed separately from FFB, and high-FFA CPO derived from LF should not be mixed with standard CPO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein 9 (Cas9) system has emerged as a powerful tool for the precise editing of plant genomes for crop improvement. Rapid in vitro methods for the determination of guide RNA (gRNA) cleavage efficiency and an efficient DNA delivery system is essential for gene editing. However, we lack an efficient gene-editing system for palm species. In this study, we described the development of a transient oil palm protoplast assay to rapidly evaluate the cleavage efficiency of CRISPR/Cas9 mutagenesis and the generation of stable transformed oil palms using biolistic particle bombardment in immature embryos. Using the phytoene desaturase (EgPDS) gene, we found cleavage frequency of up to 25.49% in electro-transfected protoplast, which enables the production of transgenic oil palm shoots exhibiting chimeric albino phenotypes as a result of DNA insertions, deletions (InDels), and nucleotide substitutions, with a mutation efficiency of 62.5–83.33%. We further validated the mutagenesis efficiency and specificity of the CRISPR/Cas9 system in oil palm by targeting the brassinosteroid-insensitive 1 (EgBRI1) gene, which resulted in nucleotide substitutions in EgBRI1 with premature necrosis phenotype in oil palm transgenic shoots and stunted phenotype resulting from DNA InDels. Taken together, our results showed that effective and efficient editing of genes using the CRISPR/Cas9 system can be achieved in oil palm by optimizing the selection of efficient gRNA and DNA delivery methods. This newly designed strategy will enable new routes for the genetic improvement in oil palm and related species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sterilisation in palm oil mills is considered a pre-treatment process as it affects stripping efficiency and oil quality. Although sterilisation technology has been well-established in the palm oil milling industry, the roles and principles of sterilisation, particularly related to the chemical changes in fruits and stalks occurring during the process, have been rarely reported. The review begins with the background literature on the biochemical properties of the FFBs, such as the compositions of binding carbohydrates and the phenomena of natural fruit detachment. Followed by the harvesting practice to understand the type of FFBs supplied to the industry. In addition, a comparison of the well-established conventional and alternative sterilisation technologies and sterilisation functions is critically reviewed and assessed. Establishing the current sterilisation process initiatives to address the natural fruit’s separation more efficiently in palm oil mills is important. Particularly visualise sterilisation as a breakup of specific binding carbohydrates that leads to strippability. It will provide a further understanding of the sterilisation mechanism, which would benefit the palm oil miller in optimising the processing of fresh fruit bunches. The information provided in this review is necessary to mitigate the percentage of unstripped bunches and reduce the oil losses and ultimately enhance the oil extraction rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oil palm seed producers typically require 10 months of various processes from pollination to seed germination to produce commercial dura × pisifera hybrid seeds. Conventional forced fruit shedding from underripe fresh fruit bunches (FFB) usually causes seed damage and an extended retting period (incubation for natural fruit abscission from spikelets), eventually leading to bunch rot and disease infection. As a fruit ripening agent, ethephon has been explored to hasten fruit abscission in many fruit crops and oil palm. Nevertheless, the previous studies in oil palm only focused on fruit shedding from FFB to improve oil extraction rate in oil mills without considering the actual FFB ripeness and retting period, which are critical for oil palm seed production. In this study, the application of ethephon containing buffer (adjusted to pH 9.0) to underripe FFB at 145 days after pollination (DAP), 135 DAP and 125 DAP resulted in 50% more fruit abscission after a 72-h incubation. Considering the minimal seed loss upon FFB harvest (<1%) and 50% reduction in retting period, underripe FFB at around 145 DAP was found to be optimum for seed production using ethephon treatment. The treatment, however, made negligible improvement in fruit detachment for ripe FFB at 150 DAP and older. Importantly, seed germination and culling rate at nursery stages were not significantly affected by the ethephon treatment. Hence, ethephon application can improve commercial seed production practices for oil palm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abiotic stress reduces plant growth and crop productivity. However, the mechanism underlying posttranscriptional regulations of stress response remains elusive. Herein, we report the posttranscriptional mechanism of nucleocytoplasmic RNA transport of stress‐responsive transcripts mediated by EgRBP42, a heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein‐like RNA‐binding protein from oil palm, which could be necessary for rapid protein translation to confer abiotic stress tolerance in plants. Transgenic Arabidopsis overexpressing EgRBP42 showed early flowering through alteration of gene expression of flowering regulators and exhibited tolerance towards heat, cold, drought, flood, and salinity stresses with enhanced poststress recovery response by increasing the expression of its target stress‐responsive genes. EgRBP42 harbours nucleocytoplasmic shuttling activity mediated by the nuclear localization signal and the M9‐like domain of EgRBP42 and interacts directly with regulators in the nucleus, membrane, and the cytoplasm. EgRBP42 regulates the nucleocytoplasmic RNA transport of target stress‐responsive transcripts through direct binding to their AG‐rich motifs. Additionally, EgRBP42 transcript and protein induction by environmental stimuli are regulated at the transcriptional and posttranscriptional levels. Taken together, the posttranscriptional regulation of RNA transport mediated by EgRBP42 may change the stress‐responsive protein profiles under abiotic stress conditions leading to a better adaptation of plants to environmental changes. This study shows that EgRBP42, an RNA‐binding protein from oil palm, is involved in plant response to abiotic stress. Overexpression of EgRBP42 in Arabidopsis conferred drought, flood, salinity, and cold tolerance with early flowering. EgRBP42 harbours nucleocytoplasmic shuttling activity, and it interacts directly and is colocalized with stress‐responsive mRNAs in response to abiotic stresses, suggesting that EgRBP42 may be involved in intracellular transport of stress‐responsive RNAs in response to abiotic stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Genomic selection (GS) uses genome-wide markers as an attempt to accelerate genetic gain in breeding programs of both animals and plants. This approach is particularly useful for perennial crops such as oil palm, which have long breeding cycles, and for which the optimal method for GS is still under debate. In this study, we evaluated the effect of different marker systems and modeling methods for implementing GS in an introgressed dura family derived from a Deli dura x Nigerian dura (Deli x Nigerian) with 112 individuals. This family is an important breeding source for developing new mother palms for superior oil yield and bunch characters. The traits of interest selected for this study were fruit-to-bunch (F/B), shell-to-fruit (S/F), kernel-to-fruit (K/F), mesocarp-to-fruit (M/F), oil per palm (O/P) and oil-to-dry mesocarp (O/DM). The marker systems evaluated were simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). RR-BLUP, Bayesian A, B, Cπ, LASSO, Ridge Regression and two machine learning methods (SVM and Random Forest) were used to evaluate GS accuracy of the traits. Results: The kinship coefficient between individuals in this family ranged from 0.35 to 0.62. S/F and O/DM had the highest genomic heritability, whereas F/B and O/P had the lowest. The accuracies using 135 SSRs were low, with accuracies of the traits around 0.20. The average accuracy of machine learning methods was 0.24, as compared to 0.20 achieved by other methods. The trait with the highest mean accuracy was F/B (0.28), while the lowest were both M/F and O/P (0.18). By using whole genomic SNPs, the accuracies for all traits, especially for O/DM (0.43), S/F (0.39) and M/F (0.30) were improved. The average accuracy of machine learning methods was 0.32, compared to 0.31 achieved by other methods. Conclusion: Due to high genomic resolution, the use of whole-genome SNPs improved the efficiency of GS dramatically for oil palm and is recommended for dura breeding programs. Machine learning slightly outperformed other methods, but required parameters optimization for GS implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The oil palm Elaeis guineensis Jacq. which produces the highest yield per unit land area of the oil crops is the most important commercial oil crop in South East Asia. The fleshy mesocarp of oil palm fruit, where oil is mostly derived from, contains up to 90 % dry weight of oil (one of the most concentrated in plant tissues). Hence, there is attention given to gain insights into the processes of oil deposition in this oil rich tissue. For that purpose, two-dimensional differential gel electrophoresis (DIGE) coupled with western assays, were used here to analyze differential protein levels in genetically-related high-and low-yielding oil palm mesocarps. Results: From the DIGE comparative analysis in combination with western analysis, 41 unique differentially accumulated proteins were discovered. Functional categorization of these proteins placed them in the metabolisms of lipid, carbohydrate, amino acids, energy, structural proteins, as well as in other functions. In particular, higher abundance of fructose-1,6-biphosphate aldolase combined with reduced level of triosephosphate isomerase and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase may be indicative of important flux balance changes in glycolysis, while amino acid metabolism also appeared to be closely linked with oil yield. Conclusions: Forty-one proteins in several important biological pathways were identified as exhibiting differential in abundance at critical oil production stages. These confirm that oil yield is a complex trait involving the regulation of genes in multiple biological pathways. The results also provide insights into key control points of lipid biosynthesis in oil palm and can assist in the development of genetic markers for use in oil palm breeding programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Driven by the demand for more sustainable products, research and capital investment has been committed to developing microbially produced oils. While researchers have shown oleaginous yeasts and other microbes can produce low-carbon footprint oils by leveraging waste streams as energy sources, previous analyses have not fully explored the quantity of available waste streams and in turn economy-of-scale enabled on capital and operating expenses. This paper makes parallels to 2G ethanol facilities, enabling a data-driven understanding of large-scale production economics. Production costs are broken down for a variety of scenarios. The analysis finds that reaching price parity with large-scale commodity oils (e.g., palm oil, high-oleic cooking oils, biofuels feedstock oils, lauric acid) is not possible today and unlikely even under aggressive future assumptions about strain productivity. Instead, commercial production must be targeted at end markets where sustainability-conscious consumers are willing to pay the price premiums identified in this paper., One Sentence Summary: This paper makes parallels to 2G ethanol facilities, enabling a data-driven understanding of large-scale production economics for microbial lipids., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Society of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology.)