A review on date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.)‎ tissue cultured plants offtypeness in Iraqi laboratories

الملخص EN

Date palm tree considered as one of the most important fruit tree in the Middle East countries, especially in the Arabian Peninsula.

Date fruits are consumed fresh (Rutab) or after partial drying and storage (Tamar) during off-season.

Iraq as a dates producer is among the top ten of the major dates producing zones in the world.

Several commercial and government institutes, are working on tissue culture propagation of date palm cultivars.

Date palm in vitro multiplication confronts different obstacles; among them the plant's off-typeness is considered the most important challenge.

Plant's off-typeness is caused by somaclonal variations and lead to a severe abnormalities in micropropagated plants including dwarfism, leaf variegation, necrosis of midrib, single leaf chlorosis, albino, bastard offshoot formation, excessive vegetative growth, delayed flowering, failure of pollination, abnormal fruiting and sterilisation.

This paper reviews all the potential factors responsible for plant's off- typeness; it's causes and their molecular detection in Iraqi laboratories.