That’s not to say shriveled fruit is retribution for past actions. Karma in palm oil plants is a “jumping gene,” or transposon, a selfish bit of DNA that copies and inserts itself in a host’s DNA.

A multinational team of researchers from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board in Selangor, Orion Genomics in St. Louis and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, has identified a novel epigenetic ...

Scientists have identified a genetic defect in oil palms, called bad karma, which reduces yields – a finding that could save industry both time and money, they say. A group of scientists, funded by ...