Читать книгу Biotechnology of Fruit and Nut Crops - Группа авторов - Страница 122

Biotechnology is expected to provide effective support for the selection and breeding of new coconut genotypes. However, poor plant recovery of in vitro cultures remains a major hurdle, as well as the slow growth of these cultures. It is clear that clonal propagation via somatic embryogenesis has great potential, and once fully developed, could be applied to the rapid production of elite coconut seedlings with superior fruit traits, as well as those with resistance to pests and diseases and tolerance of unfavourable environments. Highly embryogenic suspension cultures are an important research challenge that must be addressed. Likewise, plantlet development and soil acclimatization of regenerants could be further enhanced by using a semi-submerging, temporary immersion and photoautotrophic culture systems (Samosir and Adkins, 2014; Nguyen et al., 2015).

Sequencing of the whole coconut genome will be of great use but will require intensive effort as it is larger and contains more repeated sequences than other palm species (Gunn et al., 2015). Even though coconut molecular genetics has lagged behind other agricultural species, constant improvements in the accessibility of high-throughput sequencing techniques are likely to accelerate the generation of genetic data for coconut over the next few years (Meerow et al., 2012). Molecular selection and breeding will greatly benefit from this valuable genetic information.