The timber industry has been a strong force in economy, worth billions of ringgit annually. Up to date it has been largely focused on the exploitation of our natural forest resources through deforestation. However, current estimates speculate that if these trends were to continue, the world’s forests would be depleted in a hundred years! Yet, the demand for paper and timber products are growing, greatly speeding the rate of consumption for such wood products. In response, environmentally-conscious sectors are currently shifting their focus onto alternative measures in place of logging.

The most promising of the options would be farmed wood, in which specific tree seedling are grown in a managed forest for the sole purpose of timber. However a pressing dilemma which beleaguers such efforts would be the lack of quality seedlings for planting. In 1992, with the technical expertise of French agricultural research organization CIRAD-Foret, the Plant Biotechnology Laboratory was born. The Plant Biotechnology Laboratory, a subsidiary company of the Yayasan Sabah, started venturing into the prospect of tissue culture in the production of teak seedlings with the foresight of genetic improvement through biotechnological means.
		Figure 1: Tisssue Culture

Located in Tawau, Sabah, the Plant Biotechnology Laboratory is headed by Group Manager, Dr Doreen Goh. In the midst of moving her facility to a more easily accessible location in Kota Kinabalu, she graciously agreed upon spending a few moments on a phone interview. Gracious, witty and ever au courant, Dr Goh gave a remarkable insight on this biotechnology laboratory which has grown into one of only five companies internationally known to produce quality teak seedlings.

“We started out 10 years ago with the help of CIRAD-Foret, with the aim of discovering an economically-viable method in producing tissue culture plants while maintaining the quality. That took us 6 years in R&D, and today we have produced more than 200,000 shoots which are exported to countries like Australia, Brazil, Tanzania etc.,” enthuses Dr. Goh.

The technique of tissue culture generally consists of taking a small section of a plant, transferring it to a sterile nutrient-based medium and allowing it to multiply. The nutrient medium is formulated according to the specific needs of the plant and the desired results. Such procedures allow researchers to clone plants with specific traits many times over in a very short period and also keep tight control over the nutrients given to the plants.

Hence, one of the benefits of tissue culture is that this technique enables the researcher to control and manipulate the growth of the plant. This in turn would greatly increase the quality of the plants involved. It is also possible to select and introduce improved planting material for mass multiplication. As is the case of teak, an exponential multiplication rate of 3-4 microcuttings could be obtained in a six to eight week cycle on a single multiplication and elongation medium with the addition of minimal growth hormones.

With spontaneous rooting occurring at 80% and the high survival rate of 90% through the acclimatization phase, such methods are highly feasible for economical utilisation. Today, the Plant Biotechnology Laboratory is known worldwide for its high quality seedlings which yield superior wood characteristics.

When asked about future prospects that the group would be looking at, Dr Goh laughingly replied, “Of course, the first on my list is moving out of Tawau.” She then added the possibility of looking into the prospects of the micropropagation of three types of acacias, and possibly oil palm and decorative plants like orchids.

Commenting on the future of plant tissue cultures, Dr. Goh commented, “It is a largely untapped resource which would generate huge interest in the near future.”