Date palms are a vital part of oasis ecosystems and are an important source of income in arid and semi-arid areas. Crossbreeding is limited due to the long juvenile stage of date palms and their dioecious nature. The aim of this study was to create triploid date palms to obtain larger and seedless fruits and to increase resilience to abiotic stresses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAvailability of efficient male genotypes is critical for successful artificial pollination and regular bearing of female date palms. The effect of flowering stage and storage conditions on pollen quality of six male date palm genotypes encoded 'ABD1', 'P4', 'P3', 'P8', 'P7' and 'P13'were evaluated. Pollen collected from spathes developed at the middle of flowering stage exhibited the best viability (90%) and germinability (85%) compared to other stages.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSuccess artificial pollination with viable pollen is crucial process in the production chain of date palms. This study evaluated the impact of pollen storage temperature and duration, pollination time following spathe cracking, and the hour of daytime on pollen viability, germinability, fruit set and yield of 'Deglet Nour' date palm cultivar. In tests, fresh pollen showed the maximum viability (96.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSince the publication of this paper, it has become apparent that an error was made in the legend to Fig. 3 and the colours referring to occidental and oriental are the wrong way round. The authors apologise for this error, and a correct version of the legend to Fig.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Aims: Date palms (Phoenix dactylifera, Arecaceae) are of great economic and ecological value to the oasis agriculture of arid and semi-arid areas. However, despite the availability of a large date palm germplasm spreading from the Atlantic shores to Southern Asia, improvement of the species is being hampered by a lack of information on global genetic diversity and population structure. In order to contribute to the varietal improvement of date palms and to provide new insights on the influence of geographic origins and human activity on the genetic structure of the date palm, this study analysed the diversity of the species.
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