Oil palm, a cross-pollinated crop with long generation time, poses a lot of challenges in achieving sustainable oil palm with high yield and quality. The African oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) is the most productive and versatile oil-yielding crop in the world, producing more than any other oil-yielding crop. Despite recent challenges, such as stress tolerance, superior oil quality, disease tolerance, and the need for new market niches, there is a growing need to explore and develop new varieties with high yield potential and the genetic diversity required to maintain oil palm yield stability. Breeding is an indispensable part of producing high-quality planting materials to increase oil palm yield. Biotechnological technologies have transformed conventional plant breeding approaches by introducing novel genotypes for breeding. Innovative pre-breeding and breeding approaches, such as identifying candidate genes in wild or land races using genomics tools, can pave the way for genetic improvement in oil palm. In this review, we highlighted the modern breeding tools, including genomics, marker-assisted breeding, genetic engineering, and genome editing techniques in oil palm crops, and we explored certain concerns connected to the techniques and their applications in practical breeding.

Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis, Jacq.) is a prominent vegetable-oil-yielding crop. Cultivating high-yielding oil palm with improved traits is a pre-requisite to meet the increasing demands of palm oil consumption. However, tissue culture and biotechnological approaches can resolve these concerns. Over the past three decades, significant research has been carried out to develop tissue culture and genetic transformation protocols for oil palm. Somatic embryogenesis is an efficient platform for the micropropagation of oil palm on a large scale. In addition, various genetic transformation techniques, including microprojectile bombardment, Agrobacterium tumefaciens mediated, Polyethylene glycol mediated mediated, and DNA microinjection, have been developed by optimizing various parameters for the efficient genetic transformation of oil palm. This review mainly emphasizes the methods established for in vitro propagation and genetic transformation of oil palm. Finally, we propose the application of the genome editing tool CRISPR/Cas9 to improve the various traits in this oil yielding crop.

The AP2/ERF transcription factor family members play crucial roles in controlling plant growth and development, as well as responses to various abiotic stresses. Genome-wide identification and characterization of AP2/ERF genes has not yet been carried out in the oil palm genome. In the present work, we reported the occurrence of 172 EgAP2/ERFs (AP2, ERF, RAV & Soloist members) through genome-wide identification. Phylogenetic analysis was used to divide them into four groups, including: 34 AP2, 131 ERF, 5 RAV, and 2 Soloist gene family members. All 172 AP2/ERF members were unevenly distributed across 16 chromosomes of oil palm. Gene duplication analysis elucidated the tandem duplication of AP2/ERFs on chromosome blocks of the oil palm genome during evolution. Gene structure as well as conserved motif analysis demonstrated the conserved nature of intron/exon organization and motifs among the AP2/ERF genes. Several cis-regulatory elements—related to hormone, stress, and defense responses—were identified in the promoter regions of AP2/ERFs. Tissue-specific expression of 172 AP2/ERFs in five different tissues of oil palm was also revealed by heatmap analysis using the available transcriptome data. Finally, abiotic stress (salinity, cold & drought)-responsive AP2/ERFs in the oil palm genome were validated through qPCR analysis. Our study provided valuable information on oil palm AP2/ERF superfamily members and dissected their role in abiotic stress conditions.