In vitro Selection of Somaclonal Variant of Salt Tolerance in Date Palm

Date palm tree (Phoenix dactylifera) is the most important tree in the sultanate of Oman in term of the agriculture annual income and the number of cultivated trees. Date palm tree has recently suffered from the high soil salinity, a situation that reduces their production and numbers in the sultanate. In this project, I will use tissue culture technique as a tool to produce somatic embryos with an enhanced salt tolerance trait. This can be occurred with the help of the genetic and epigenetic changes that take place under salt pressure during the cell culture cycles which may lead to produce date palm plants with a novel salt tolerant phenotype. Preliminary information which will be obtained from this proposal will help to produce salt tolerant date palm tree. Production of salt tolerance date palm tree is an extremely important strategy to use in order to increase date palm yield and to maintain the natural vegetation in the Sultanate of Oman.