Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.,2n = 2x = 36) is a dioecious, perennial,
monocotyledonous fruit tree belongs to Arecaceae family, and is of a major socioeconomic
importance in West Asia andAfrica as a fruit tree and also as an ornamental plant (Morton 1987). The tree plays an important role in the development of sustainable agriculture in many drought
and saline affected regions of the world(Wellmann et al. 2007, Kurup et al. 2009).
Date palm has been cultivated for at least 7,000 years and is believed to have originated in Mesopotamia (Wrigley 1995).Extensive efforts have been made to propagate date palms through tissue culture (Omar et al. 1992, Zaid and de Wet 2002, Al-Khayri 2005). Generally, propagation
by either offshoots or tissue culture
results in true-to-type plants but some off-types with abnormal phenotypes also have
been reported in tissue cultured plants
which may be due to somaclonal variations
(Al-Wasel 1999).