Somaclonal variation is inevitable in tissue culture especially when the regeneration is through callus. Though somaclonal variation has been exploited in other annual crops and flowering plants, in oil palm it has caused a set back for commercial exploitation. Since the clonal abnormality in oil palm causes an unacceptably high incidence of bunch failure it is not desirable in oil palm. The appearance of fruit and floral abnormalities in clonal oil palm was first noticed in 1986. The flowers are described as “mantled” and are non-functional and there is no fruit development resulting in parthenocarpy and severe bunch failure. This was a big set back in oil palm tissue culture. Apart from mantled flowering several other variations like succulent shoots, rigid shoots, crinkled shoots, curled shoots and terminal inflorescences have been observed in tissue cultured clones of oil palm. There are several factors reported to cause these abnormalities. With the development of molecular techniques, extensive research has been undertaken in other countries to apply these techniques to find out the causes of this abnormality and to rectify this at the early stage itself. This paper discusses on some of these abnormalities and the application of molecular markers for detecting this abnormality at an early stage.
