Chromosome identification in oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) using in situ hybridization with massive pools of single copy oligonucleotides and transferability across Arecaceae species.

Chromosome identification is essential for linking sequence and chromosomal maps, verifying sequence assemblies, showing structural variations and tracking inheritance or recombination of chromosomes and chromosomal segments during evolution and breeding programs. Unfortunately, identification of individual chromosomes and chromosome arms has been a major challenge for some economically important crop species with a near-continuous chromosome size range and similar morphology. Here, we developed oligonucleotide-based chromosome-specific probes that enabled us to establish a reference chromosome identification system for oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.