Some Morphological and Anatomical Aspects of Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) Somatic Embryogenesis in Tissue Culture

This study was carried out to investigate the morphological and anatomical aspects of somatic embryogenesis in date palm. Lateral bud and shoot tip explants excised from young offshoots were cultured on MS medium with 2,4-D. Somatic embryogenesis was induced by transferring the calli produced on the same medium without hormones. Microtome sectioning of paraffin-embedded specimens was carried out using the callus tissue and its differentiated structures. The sections were stained with safranin and fast green. Observation of three-celled proembryos with the longitudinal and oblique division of the top cell, which in later stages results in wedge-like cell(s), supports the ASTERAD type of embryogenesis in date palm. Polyembryonic structures were raised from the embryonic callus formed in different regions of both the proembryos and germinating embryos and the secondary embryos formed directly from primary embryos