Morphological stages of date palm cell suspension culture and production of biomass, phenolics, and proteins under elicitors of activated charcoal and glutamine.

This study presents an efficient protocol for the large-scale production of somatic embryos from embryogenic cell suspension cultures of Phoenix dactylifera (date palm). The morphological development of somatic embryos was documented across distinct stages from globular, cotyledonary and somatic embryos forms, with synchronized growth over an eight-week period. The cells of suspension cultures divided actively and formed globular embryos within 2nd and 3rd week, the globular embryos started to conversion to cotyledonary embryos in the 3rd week and continued until the 4th week, while the somatic embryos formed within the 5th and 6th week, followed by a stationary phase in the week 7 and 8. Effects of activated charcoal and glutamine on production of biomass, phenolics and proteins in cell suspension culture were studied. The accumulation of biomass increased approximately eightyfold in the medium with charcoal and glutamine at the end of 8th week. The culture medium free of activated charcoal showed significant increased browning of tissue and spent liquid medium, and significant increased phenolics production and peroxidase activity in somatic embryos compared to the medium with charcoal. Overall, the findings contribute valuable insights into optimizing in vitro culture conditions for date palm, with implications for enhanced production of biomass and secondary metabolites such as phenolics and proteins.