Embryo Incision as a New Technique for Double Seedling Production of Indonesian Elite Coconut Type “Kopyor”

Abstract

One of the present major limitations of seedling production of kopyor type coconut using embryo culture is that only one seedling can be produced from a single embryo. Therefore, we report on the development of a new breakthrough technique for the production of double seedlings from a single embryo. The technique consists of four steps, viz. (i) germination; (ii) incision; (iii) splitting; and (iv) recovery. A histological study was carried out on the development of the halved embryo into a new shoot. The best recovery process was obtained when the incised embryo was split into two and recovered into Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 2 μM IBA and 15 μM kinetin. Following this protocol, an average of 56 shoots was successfully recovered from 30 zygotic embryos. The histological study also revealed that the meristem tissue of the halved embryo was able to produce a new meristem and primordial leaf. Most of the shoots then went on to produce normal seedlings and could be acclimatized successfully after having developed 2 or 3 leaves. This protocol is useful for routine seedling production of the kopyor-type coconut.

Keywords

• embryo culture
• embryo splitting
• in vitro culture
• meristem
• multiplication