Somatic embryogenesis from cell suspension culture of oil palm

Oil palm micropropagation via somatic embryogenesis from suspension culture offers the potential for enhancing proliferation and synchronous development of embryos. Embryogenic suspension? cultures were established using stock cultures of friable embryogenic calli initiated from immature leaf fragments of an adult palm in B5 liquid medium supplemented with 0.1 mg/L 2,4-D, 0.1 mg/L kinetin and 3% sucrose. Embryogenic cell aggregates from the suspension cultures were plated on De Fossard's (DF) gelled medium or transferred to DF liquid medium without plant growth regulators (PGRs) for expression of embryogenesis. After 1-2 passages through the DF expression medium, globular proembryos were differentiated from the embryogenic cell aggregates. Further development of the pro-embryos, leading to mature and germinated embryos was generally observed after the embryogenic clusters were plated on DF gelled medium without PGRs. Synchronization of embryo development was evident as indicated by the predominant presence of globular embryos (73.3%). The present results suggest that embryogenic calli of oil palm are amenable to liquid culture. The regeneration of somatic embryos from suspension culture and their relatively synchronous development as demonstrated here is potential for scaling up production of oil palm somatic embryos under bioreactor conditions.