In Vitro Conservation and Germination of Encapsulated Somatic Embryos of "Barhi" Date Palm

Abstract

Synthetic seeds technique is a tool for mass propagation of elite plant species with high commercial value. Somatic embryos (1.5 mm in length) of date palm cv. Barhi were used in two experiments, the first experiment was designed to study the effect of sodium alginate concentrations at 4%, 5% and 6% and Abscisic acid concentration at 0.0, 0.5, 1.5 and 2.0  mg l−1 on conservation and germination of encapsulated somatic embryos of date palm cv. Barhi after four months. The second experiment aims to get the highest germination percentage and growth vigor of synthetic seeds which conserved for a period of four months at the same condition of the best treatment from the previous experiment, it has been used three combinations of plant growth regulator as follows: I- (0.1 mg l−1 α-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) + 0.05 mg l−1 6benzylaminopurine(BA)), II- (0.1 mg l−1 NAA + 0.02 mg l−1 BA + 0.03 mg l−1 Kinetin (Kin)) and III- (0.1 mg l−1 NAA + 0.02 mg l−1 BA + 0.03 mg l−1 Kin + 0.5 mg l−1 Gibberellic acid). The results showed that, the best treatment which gave the highest percentage of synthetic seeds germination (71.6%) and a maximum degree of embryos growth (= 4) was 5% of sodium alginate +1.5 mg l−1 Abscisic acid. While in the second experiment, the best result of percentage of conversion (80.1%) and (80.6%) were achieved at using of second and third treatments combinations respectively.