About the Authors

Ngoot-Chin Ting

Affiliation Advanced Biotechnology and Breeding Centre, Malaysian Palm Oil Board, Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia

Johannes Jansen

Affiliation Biometris, Wageningen University and Research Centre, AC Wageningen, The Netherlands

Jayanthi Nagappan

Affiliation Advanced Biotechnology and Breeding Centre, Malaysian Palm Oil Board, Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia

Zamzuri Ishak

Affiliation Advanced Biotechnology and Breeding Centre, Malaysian Palm Oil Board, Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia

Cheuk-Weng Chin

Affiliation Federal Land Development Authority Malaysia Biotechnology Centre, Federal Land Development Authority Malaysia Agricultural Services Sdn. Bhd., Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Soon-Guan Tan

Affiliation Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

Suan-Choo Cheah

Current address: ACGT Sdn. Bhd., Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Affiliation Advanced Biotechnology and Breeding Centre, Malaysian Palm Oil Board, Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia

Rajinder Singh

rajinder@mpob.gov.my

Affiliation Advanced Biotechnology and Breeding Centre, Malaysian Palm Oil Board, Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia

Competing Interests

The authors have the following interests. Cheuk-Weng Chin is employed by FELDA Agricultural Services Sdn. Bhd and Choo Cheah by ACGT Sdn. Bhd. Support in tissue culture of the palms was provided by: Dr. Hamidah Musa (and her predecessor, Dr. Zaleha Mohd. Mydin) and Ms. Halina Mohd Ramly of Guthrie Biotech Laboratory Sdn Bhd; Dr. Maheran Abu Bakar and Mr. Aw Khoo Teng of FELDA Agricultural Services Sdn Bhd; Dr. Lim Loon Lui of IOI Corporation Bhd; Ms. Ho Yuk Wah formerly from United Plantations Bhd; Dr. Aziah Mohd Yusoff and Ms. Halilah Khafidz of Golden Hope Plantations Bhd; Ms. Suzaini Yahya of Ebor Laboratories; and Ms. Girlie Wong and Ms. Joyce Chong of Applied Agriculture Research Sdn Bhd. Mr. Suhaimi Shamsuddin, oil palm breeder at FELDA, assisted the authors in maintaining the cross and sampling the palms. Part of the work leading to this paper was carried out at Biometris; Dr. Azhar Mohamad allowed the authors to use the ABI3100 genetic analyzer (Applied Biosystems, UK) at Nuclear Malaysia. There are no further patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter the authors’ adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials, as detailed online in the guide for authors.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: NCT JJ ZI CWC SCC SGT RS. Performed the experiments: NCT JN. Analyzed the data: NCT JJ RS. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: ZI CWC JJ RS. Wrote the paper: NCT JJ JN SGT RS.