Effect of sucrose and abscisic acid on in vitro growth and development of date palm during rooting stage

ABSTRACT

A typical somatic embryogenesis protocol for date palm involves a series of consecutive stages beginning with somatic embryo induction, maturation, germination and ending with rooting stage. One of the main problems of in vitro propagation is acclimatization of derived plantlets. Rooting and subsequently acclimatization stages were considered the most important stages in the commercial scale. This study was carried out to overcome the problems through rooting stage. Shootlets [5-7 cm in length] of date palm cv. Bartamuda were cultured on rooting MS medium [three quarters or half strength] supplemented with ABA [0.0, 0.25, 0.50, and 1.0mg /l], sucrose [15, 30 and 45 g/l] to study their effects on root number, root length, length of plantlets, growth vigor, plantlet and root thickness. This study showed that, sucrose at the highest concentration [45g/l] and ABA at 0.25 mg/l increased significantly root formation during rooting stage. Using 3/4 MS salt strength medium supplemented with ABA at 0.25 mg/l and sucrose at 45 g/l increased significantly the number of roots, plantlet length, growth vigor, plantlet and root thickness, while control MS medium [ABA free medium] recorded the highest value of plantlet lengt, 1/2 MS medium increased significantly the root length