EFFECT OF SORBITOL ON PERCENTAGE OF GERMINATION AND FRESH WEIGHT OF EMBRYOGENIC CALLUS FOR DATE PALM (BARHI CULTIVAR) AFTER CRYOPRESERVATION

The current study was conducted for the period from October 2014 until July 2017 in order to increase the susceptibility of date palm phoenix dactylifera L. to withstand the water stress using plant tissue culture and treated with some materials used for cryopreservation, The embryonic callus from the cultivating of the Shoot tips, planted on the Murashige and Skoog media, was subjected to immersion in preservation solution and cultivation on a sucrose-containing medium (342.3 g.L-1) for seven days at 27ºC in the dark, save the embryonic callus in liquid nitrogen at -196ºC for 6 and 12 weeks, The callus was cultivated on the sorbitol container medias with 0, 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 molar concentrations. The effect of sorbitol on the percentage of germination and fresh weight of embryonic callus was studied, complete randomize design was used. The interaction treatment between (0.1 molar) sorbitol, DMSO and 10% concentration was excelled, the highest average of fresh weight was 4.64 g, while the interaction treatment between (0.3 molar) sorbitol and PEG and 20% concentration recorded the lowest average weight of 0.04 g. The triple interaction between the sorbitol, the preservation solutions and their concentration was significant in the decrease in the percentage of germination. The interaction treatment between (0.2 molar) sorbitol, DMSO and (10%) concentration recorded the lowest percentage of germination of 16.7% Compared with the interaction treatment between control, DMSO and 10% concentration Which recorded the highest rate of percentage of germination reached 44.3%.