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A new project on the genetics of "Kopyor" coconut

Nusantara is a two-years project co-funded by the French Institute in Indonesia and the Indonesian Ministery for Scientific Research (Ristek).

Alain RIVAL from Cirad, Montpellier, France visited Muhammadiyah University of Purwokerto (MUP) in Central Java, Indonesia, under the framework of the «Kopyor» bilateral project PHC Nusantara linking French and Indonesian research bodies for two years. As a Visiting Professor, Alain was invited to give Masters lectures in the Faculties of Life Science and Pharmacy on topics including Biotechnologies and Epigenetics for more than 200 students. He also gave the opening lecture of the National Seminar on Biotechnology organized at MUP during his stay. A training session for research staff and lecturers from various MUP Faculties was organized; the topic was “Scientific information and international publications”.

The Kopyor project is also dedicated to collaborative research aiming at the characterization of high value variants of coconut which is essentially a smallholders’ crop in Indonesia. Coconuts from Kopyor variant have a gelatinous, semisolid albumen which is extremely appreciated by Indonesian customers and easily processed into ice creams and desserts. Selling price of such coconuts can reach 100,000 IRP, which is 10 times the price of normal nuts. 

It has been possible to undertake zygotic embryo rescue in vitro and the further regeneration of viable plants hopefully bearing the variant phenotype. Since 2008, Dr. Sisunandar is applying at MUP the major results of his PhD work previously developed at University of Queensland (Australia). He has progressively improved success rates at each key step of the embryo rescue process, including the very critical acclimatization stage. As a result, several hundreds of regenerant coconut plantlets are presently pampered in the nursery and will be field planted in 2014.

Together with Dr. Alain Rival, Dr. Sisunandar will explore both the genetic and epigenetic determinism of Kopyor phenotype following a molecular approach.

This step of Nusantara Project has been initiated during the visit of Dr Sisunandar at UMR DIADE in Cirad, Montpellier in October 2013. DNA has been extracted from normal/Kopyor materiel from different genetic backgrounds (Dwarf and Tall ecotypes) and methylation-sensitive molecular markers (MSAP) will be developed in the coming year. An innovative approach of Genotyping by Sequencing (GbS) is also envisaged using facilities and expertise from the Workshop on molecular marking at AGAP Regional genotyping technology platform located at SupAgro University in Montpellier.

Learn more
University Muhammadiyah Purwokerto (UMP)
The research team of UMR DIADE


Contact
Dr. Alain Rival
Dr. Sisunandar
Laboratorium Genetika dan Botani
Universitas Muhammadiyah Purwokerto
Kampus Dukuhwaluh, Kembaran Purwokerto