Oil palm, a tropical plant with an economic life of 20–25 years, is on high demand since its oil (palm oil) is now considered to be the world’s most consumed oil. Despite the high potential for the use of clonal materials, the tissue culture technique for oil palm is difficult and laborious. One of the key steps of the process is the conversion of polyembroids into plantlets. Gelling agent has been implicated to play a role in ensuring the conversion of oil palm polyembryoids into complete plantlets. In the present study, for the first time, we report the effects of two types of common gelling agents, Agar Type 900 and Gelrite®, for enhanced conversion of oil palm polyembryoids into plantlets. Polyembryoids, developed from embryonic calli, were cultured and incubated on Murashige and Skoog semisolid media supplemented with Agar (Type 900) at 8–12 g/l or gellan gum (Gelrite®) 1.5–3.5 g/l. The effects of gelling agents on polyembryoid conversion was assessed based on the percentages of viability, survival, and polyembryoids that swelled, enlarged, and turned green, as well as on the basis of morphological characteristics, viz, number of shoots, leaves, roots, secondary somatic embryos, and callus formation. Based on the results of this study, in comparison to Agar Type 900, the Gelrite® with 3.5 g/l concentration was chosen as an effective gelling agent for conversion of polyembryoids into plantlets, since it resulted in 100% survival with 53.3% completely developed plantlets (multiple shoots with roots). The successful conversion of polyembryoids into plantlets achieved in this study, using the optimized gelling agent could be useful for pre-storage or post-storage conversion in many other plant species as well.

中文翻译：

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某些胶凝剂及其浓度对油棕多胚态转化为小植株的影响

油棕是一种热带植物，具有20至25年的经济寿命，由于其油（棕榈油）现在被认为是世界上消耗最多的油，因此对其需求量很大。尽管使用克隆材料的潜力很大，但油棕的组织培养技术仍然困难而费力。该过程的关键步骤之一是将多胚状体转化为小植株。已暗示胶凝剂在确保油棕多胚类转化为完整的小植株中起一定作用。在本研究中，我们首次报道了两种类型的常见胶凝剂，琼脂900型和Gelrite®，用于增强油棕多胚类向小植株的转化。从胚愈伤组织发育而来的多胚素，将其培养并在补充了琼脂（900型）的Murashige和Skoog半固体培养基上以8-12 g / l或吉兰糖胶（Gelrite®）1.5-3.5 g / l孵育。根据活力，存活率和溶胀，扩大和变绿的多胚类的百分比以及形态特征，即芽，叶，根的数量，数量，评估胶凝剂对多胚类转化的影响。次生体细胞胚和愈伤组织形成。根据这项研究的结果，与900型琼脂相比，选择浓度为3.5 g / l的Gelrite®作为将多胚状体转化为小植株的有效胶凝剂，因为它可以100％存活并完全发育53.3％植株（有根的多芽）。