Abstract

Yet another morphological abnormality in the tissue culturederived date palms (Phoenix dactylifera L.)

Author(s): Nasser S.Al-Khalifah, A.E.Shanavaskhan, Abdulmannan Al-Hindi

Somaclonal variations have been reported extensively in the tissue culture derived populations of date palms. Surveys conducted on the tissue culture derived populations of ‘Nabtet-Saif’ cultivar to enumerate the somaclonal variants, revealed that 29.12% of the tissue culture-derived populations of Nabtet-Saif have various degrees of abnormalities.Ahitherto unreported abnormal phenotype with spear-head shaped trunk is described here. Perimetermeasurement at every 50cmheight showed that the abnormal trees have continuously declining girth towards the crown end while the normal trees have almost cylindrical trunk up to the crown area. The long phase of callus induction and somatic embryo formation with growth regulators might have generated genetic or epigenetic changes in the resulting plants.