Abstract
The likelihood and degree of the reversion of somaclonal variations have not been reported for tissue-cultured date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) plants derived from immature inflorescences. In this study, three to four years old field grown tissue cultured date palm plants of cvs. Kashuwari and Gulistan derived from in vitro subculture 1-10 (block I) and 11-25 (block II) in multiplication stage were screened for type and nature of phenotypic abnormalities. Six phenotypic abnormalities were detected: 1) dwarfism, 2) excessive vegetative growth, 3) production of deformed offshoots and twisted inflorescence, 4) abnormal frond growth, 5) low levels of fruit setting and 6) inflorescence absent. Among the six different variant phenotypes, complete reversion of phenotypic abnormalities for the phenotypes of inflorescence absent, low level of fruit setting, production of deformed offshoots, and abnormal frond growth were observed in open field trial plants during the three years' study period. An overall percentage of all the variations was higher (64.19%) in block II during the first season as compared to block I (2.42%). This study provides a good indicator for the date palm tissue culture industry where in vitro cultures with subculture number <11 cycles in multiplication stage are needed to obtain higher percentage of true-to-type regenerants. © 2019, Researchers Links Ltd.
Highlights
Date palm is an important fruit crop for its high nutritional fruit and useful by-products (Khushk et al, 2009)
Date palm plants produced through this method may exhibit various phenotypic variations in open field depending on type and concentration of plant growth regulator, in vitro subculture cycle number, type of explant and genotype used
The current study focused on the evaluation of 4-5-yearold open field grown tissue cultured plants of two Pakistani date palm cultivars that derived from in vitro cultures with different number of subcultures in multiplication stage
Summary
Date palm is an important fruit crop for its high nutritional fruit and useful by-products (Khushk et al, 2009). In vitro multiplication of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) plants using inflorescence or flower explants (Abul-Soad et al, 2016) is the most preferred explant source for commercial purpose over leaf (Sharma et al, 1980), root (Smith, 1975), zygotic embryo (Zaid and Tisserat, 1984) and shoot tip from an offshoot (Abul-Soad et al, 2002) It is time saving and with minimal efforts to produce thousands of plants via somatic embryogenesis process. These spontaneous variations arise in somatic cells during the in vitro tissue culture process are known as somaclonal variations (Larkin and Scowcroft, 1981), which are generally considered as a drawback in commercial production of the clonal plants
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