A Biosecurity Tool: High-Intensity, Pulsed Polychromatic Light and UV-C Treatments of Oil Palm Pollen and Spores of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. elaeidis

Abstract

The movement of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) pollen as a germplasm material between oil palm-growing countries for the purposes of plant-breeding programs is common in West Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America. Reports of pollen contamination with Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. elaeidis (Foe), the causal agent of Fusarium wilt disease for oil palm, heightened the need for an operational decontamination technique for oil palm pollen prior to export. In this study, high-intensity, pulsed polychromatic light (HIPPL) and conventional UV (UV-C) were used as decontamination tools to treat Foe spores and oil palm pollen. We combined qualitative studies for HIPPL- and UV-C-treated Foe spores and quantitative studies for treated pollen. The study showed that despite UV-C and HIPPL successfully controlling Foe, oil palm pollen had reduced viability or was inviable upon exposure to various doses of UV-C and HIPPL sources. The effects of UV-C at doses of 2.5, 5, and 10 kJ/m2 and HIPPL at 10, 20, and 40 pulses were determined for oil palm pollen and Foe germination. UV-C doses of 10 kJ/m2 and 40 pulses of HIPPL showed significant reduction in germination of oil palm pollen but had no adverse effect on Foe viability. At 60 kJ/m2 of UV-C and 240 pulses of HIPPL, Foe was inviable, and pollen could not germinate. [Figure: see text] Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY 4.0 International license.

Keywords

• Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. elaeidis
• HIPPL
• pollen
• spores
• UV-C
• viability