A Review of Main Factors Involved in the Maturation of Oil Palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) Fruit Bunches

The oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) is a diploid perennial plant of the Arecaceae family. It is the most important plant cultivated for oil production. To ensure this production, certain optimal conditions are required: temperature, sunshine, rainfall, etc. The oil palm ensures its survival through the fruits borne on bunches located at the axis of the 17th to 20th leaves from the central stem. From pollination to the maturity of a bunch it takes about 4.5 to 6 months. Several events occur during this period: seed enlargement, weight increase, colour change, etc., but also important physiological changes: synthesis of some pigments (anthocyanin), increase in oil content correlated with the decrease in water content, etc. All of these constitute factors that can provide a better understanding of the biology of the seed. The aim of this work was to review some of the important parameters involved in the development and maturation of oil palm fruit bunches. These factors are classified into physiological, biochemical as well as environmental. The physiological parameters are color, appearance of embryo, seed weight and fruit detachment from bunches;Biochemical parameters include water content, oil content, carbohydrate, protein, mineral contents and lipase activity while temperature is the main environmental factor that affects fruit maturation. Thorough research has not yet been done at the different stages of maturation and ripening, thus a deep look into this may open up new avenues for research on early germinated oil palm seed production prior to seed dormancy.

Rapid generation advance(RGA) in chickpea to produce up to seven generations per year and enable speed breeding

This study was aimed at developing a protocol for increasing the number of generation cycles per year in chickpea(Cicer arietinum L.).Six accessions,two each from early(JG 11 and JG 14),medium(ICCV 10 and JG 16),and late(CDC-Frontier and C 235)maturity groups,were used.The experiment was conducted for two years under glasshouse conditions.The photoperiod was extended to induce early flowering and immature seeds were germinated to further reduce generation cycle time.Compared to control,artificial light caused a reduction in flowering time by respectively 8–19,7–16,and 11–27 days in early-,medium-,and late-maturing accessions.The earliest stage of immature seed able to germinate was 20–23 days after anthesis in accessions of different maturity groups.The time period between germination and the earliest stage of immature seed suitable for germination was considered one generation cycle and spanned respectively 43–60,44–64,and 52–79 days in early-,medium-,and late-maturing accessions.However,the late-maturing accession CDCFrontier could not be advanced further after three generation cycles owing to the strong influence of photoperiod and temperature.The mean total number of generations produced per year were respectively 7,6.2,and 6 in early-,medium-,and late-maturing accessions.These results have encouraging implications for breeding programs:rapid progression toward homozygosity,development of mapping populations,and reduction in time,space and resources in cultivar development(speed breeding).