Radiation-Induced Mutations for Date Palm Improvement

Abstract

Micropropagation technique is used for rapid shoot proliferation of date palm. Somatic embryogenesis is meant for clonal propagation of date palm and genetic gains can be captured through it, which is rather difficult by zygotic embryo due to its heterozygous nature. Genetic variability is highly desirable for the genetic improvement of crops, which can be either spontaneous or induced by mutagen treatments. Mutation-assisted breeding has been quite successful for the production of new mutant cultivars with desirable traits in both seed and vegetative propagated crops (see: http://www-mvd. iaea.org). In the IAEA date palm project, somatic embryogenic cell cultures were irradiated with gamma radiation, and regenerated plants were transferred to the greenhouse and treated with bayoud toxin, isolated from the causal fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. albedinis. Several putative mutants tolerant to bayoud disease were initially maintained in the greenhouse and later transferred to the field for further evaluation. Over the last 4 years, these plants have not shown any sign of susceptibility to bayoud disease under field conditions, but they have yet to flower. Thus far, our results suggest that the combination of in vitro culture and mutagenesis would be an ideal system for date palm improvement. However, molecular tools are needed to characterize mutants for trait specific gene (s) identification and to develop molecular marker assisted selection and bree­ding programs. Date palm also has great potential to provide renewable energy or bioenergy or green energy for producing bioethanol and blend it with petrol in the transport industry.