The 2011 ASHS Annual Conference

The coconut palm (<i>Cocos nucifera</i> L.) is very important because of its widespread use by humans; unfortunately, the plantation area has been greatly diminished as a cause of disease like the lethal yellowing disease, making necessary a massive production of disease-resistant seedlings. At the present time the most effective way of propagation is the somatic embryogenesis, however, the formation of embryogenic callus (EC), somatic embryos and germination is low. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of the combination of 6-benzylaminopurine (0, 25, 50, 100, 150 and 200 μM) and activated carbon of different particle size (6-BAP; ≤ 45 μm and ≥ 45) in the embryogenic calli formation after 60 days of culture. During the incubation period it was observed the formation of callus, callus embryogenic and non embryogenic callus. It must be notice that in this study, most EC formation was observed at 60 days, not 90 as in other studies reported. With treatment of 25 μM of 6-BAP, a 77 percent EC formation was observed, in contrast with 38 percent with 100 and 200 μM. The first treatment mentioned increased over 25 percent the formation of EC compared with the previously reported