GENETIC VARIABILITY OF MPOB-CAMEROON OIL PALM GERMPLASM BASED ON MORPHOLOGICAL TRAITS USING MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21894/jopr.2022.0038
Received: 6 December 2021 Accepted: 26 May 2022 Published Online: 8 July 2022
Understanding genetic variability and its distribution among breeding materials is a prerequisite to improveconservation programmes and design breeding strategies. In this study, 31 populations of dura palmsfrom MPOB-Cameroon oil palm germplasm were evaluated for 21 quantitative traits. Data retrieved fromthe MPOB Breeding Information System (MPOB-BIS™) was investigated for genetic variability usingprincipal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA). The first six principal components (PC1-PC6) with eigenvalue >1.0, accounted for 91.89% of the total variability. The first principal component,PC1 which accounted for 38.35% of the total variation was the largest, contributed by oil yield and totaleconomic product. Whilst PC2 with 16.86% total variation was positively associated with bunch index,bunch number and kernel yield. Population CMR 03 is considered extremely distinct and most positivealong PC1 as it performed well in most of bunch quality traits. Population CMR 13 is most positive towardsPC2 and among the most negative towards PC1 due to good performance in some vegetative traits studied.CA revealed greater variation among the materials evaluated. Complementing this study with molecularanalysis provides the impetus for leveraging new genetic resources in future oil palm improvements andmore tractable conservation of oil palm germplasm.
KEYWORDS:1 Malaysian Palm Oil Board,
6 Persiaran Institusi, Bandar Baru Bangi,
43000 Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia.
* Corresponding author e-mail: zulkifly@mpob.gov.my