Cryopreservation of Embryogenic Callus of Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera) cv. Magdoul through Encapsulation-Dehydration Technology

Abstract

To overcome the genetic deterioration and the extinction of date palm genotypes and species as result of environmental challenges, it has become necessary to develop techniques that allow the remaining genetic resources to be persevered under in-vitro conditions for long period without a substantial decline in the vitality, genetic stability and low survival. The development of an effective cryopreservation method for date palm (cv. Magdoul) via an encapsulation-dehydration method for long term conservation was researched in this study. Embryogenic callus, obtained from shoot tip culture, was used as explants and exposed to different concentration of sucrose (0.0, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0 and 1.5 M) combined with dehydration time (0–10 days) and different drying time (1–10 h). It was found that using sucrose at 0.75 M was more effective compared with using 1.0 and 1.5 M. Among the drying time tested, 4 h gave the best result for survival. The interaction treatment between sucrose, dehydration and moisture content (MC) was studies. After different periods of time in liquid nitrogen, the greatest values of survival (74.4%) and regrowth (71.25%) after 6 weeks of storage were obtained when 0.75 M sucrose for three days followed by 4 h dehydration period with a 39.50% MC was applied. The present results indicated that encapsulation-dehydration can be applied as a simple and effective protocol to a diverse range of cv. Magdoul genetic resources using embryogenic calli. © 2020 Friends Science Publisher