Interspecific Hybridization and Embryo Rescue in Date Palm

Abstract

Date palm breeding is a long-term endeavor. Crop improvement in date palm through breeding is very slow due to slow growth and a long life cycle. Thousands of date-palm cultivars were naturally established through crossing within the species. Recently, interspecific hybridization between two distinct palm species, Phoenix dactylifera and P. pusilla, was successfully carried out in Kuwait for developing dwarf date palm hybrids to overcome the fruit-production barrier due to excessive tree height. In this interspecific hybridization, embryogenesis and seed development occurred at the initial stages of fruit development. At the later stage of fruit growth, seed development and embryo maturation was unsuccessful due to the failure of endosperm development. Zygotic embryo culture techniques have been developed and used for the rescue and multiplication of interspecific date palm hybrid zygotic embryos at different stages of fruit development. Details of the interspecific hybridization and methods of hybrid plant production through embryo culture technique are described in this chapter.