Biolistic delivery of plasmid DNA in omani date palm

In the Arabian Peninsula Date palm tree suffers from many diseases which affect the productivity which emphasizes the demand of good date clones. Nowadays gene transformation methods are routinely used to overcome the problems to enhance the production, disease resistance and yield. This study focuses on tissue culture and production of transgenic date palm using gene gun device. It is possible to get thousands of similar clones of date palm using tissue culture/micropropagation technique using (MS) media with plant growth regulators which support callus formation and somatic embryogenesis (Farooq et al., 2012; Badawy et al., 2005). In this study attempts are made to standardize the preparation of cartridges to use in gene gun, by coating the nano particles of (tungsten/gold) with the plasmid DNA containing the desired gene along with a reporter gene and its delivery into the targeted date palm cells and to visualize the results using histochemical GUS gene assay in two varieties Aboedah (AB) and Alkhlas (ZK) of date palm. Different physical parameters were applied such as two different types of nano particles (tungsten/gold) with different particle sizes and different pressure regimes such as 900 and 1100 psi; with two different DNA concentrations (1 and 3 μg) at the shooting distance of 4.5 and 9 cm from the target tissue were used as variables. The data recorded on these parameters is used to evaluate the efficiency of microprojectile delivery into the target cells.