Scientists have identified the gene responsible for determining the yield of oil palm fruits. The discovery is being hailed as a breakthrough, potentially paving the way to thwart disease, increase yield and reduce tensions with environmentalists, though much work is ahead before the finding can be applied commercially.
Palm oil, the world’s most widely consumed and cheapest cooking oil, is extracted from fruit grown mostly on plantations of Indonesia and Malaysia. The discovery was recently reported online in the science journal Nature. Read More »