Factors Influencing Somaclonal Variation in Date Palm, Detection and Selection for Application in the Plantation

The use of somaclonal variations may suppose an advantage over conventional plant breeding aiming at introducing new traits for increased fertility, high yield, low stature (dwarfness) and tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses such as salt, drought, water logging or diseases. Date palm is a dioecious plant with a long life cycle that makes its breeding more challenging. The length of the commercial life cycle of date palms also means that it is important to have the best breeding outcomes for longer-term plant health and sustainable yields in the plantation. Currently, tissue culture techniques for date palm focus on micropropagation and the occurrence of somaclonal variations during the micropropagation process is deemed useless. This chapter covers the current research progress in date palm somaclonal variation in terms of sources of variation, its effects and methods of detection; and identifies some gaps in knowledge and recommendations for future research. The comprehensive knowledge of somaclonal variations will help date palm researchers in both micropropagating true-to-type plants and developing new genotypes.