Early detection of grafting and micrografting compatibility between wild almond species and its important cultivars for investment as rootstocks
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The genetic resources of almond are a natural wealth that should be preserved and benefiting from its genetic repertoire, especially as it is suffering from deterioration and misuse. The research was carried out at the Abo-Jarash farm in Agriculture Faculty of Damascus university and the Laboratory of Biotechnology for Medicinal Plants of the National Commission for Biotechnology/ Damascus, during the period between 2018–2021, on three wild almond species (P. communis, P. orientalis, P. korschinskii) obtained from different origins throughout Syria and three almond cultivars (Prunus dulcis cvs. Shami Furk, Dafadii, Ferragnes) that are grown at the Homs Research Centre of the General Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research. to investigate the grafting and micrografting compatibility between these wild Species and cultivars for investment as rootstocks. The result of field grafting clarified that a superiority of all the cultivars grafted onto P. korschinskii and P. communis rootstocks in the grafting success rates (78.05%, 75.94%), length of scions (33.30 cm, 27.72 cm) and its diameter (2.32 mm, 2.31 mm), respectively, compared to the grafting on P. orientalis. As for the anatomical study of union zone of grafting between scion/ rootstock combinations, cross sections taken after four week from grafting showed division of new formed cambium and few tissues of xylem were differentiated in all cultivars grafted on P. korschinskii and P. communis while it was observed semi compatible between Dafadii cultivar and P. orientalis rootstock. The results of micropropagation of tested species and cultivars indicated that the Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium, supplemented with 1 mg.l-1 benzyl adenine (BA), 0.1 mg.l-1 indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) and 0.2 mg.l-1 gibberellic acid (GA3), achieved the highest shoot multiplication rate for P. korschinskii and cultivars (Shami Furk and Dafadii), as for both species (P. communis, P. orientalis) and Ferragnes cultivar, the highest shoot multiplication rate achieved when 1 mg.l-1 BA + 0.2 mg.l-1 GA3 were added to MS media. The highest rooting rates with the largest average number of roots for studied species and cultivars were obtained when using IBA auxin at a concentration of 1 mg.l-1 in ½MS medium and the acclimatization percentages ranged between 50% for Ferragnes and 94% for P. communis. he result of micrografting, the highest grafting success rates (73.18%, 68.44%, 64.29%), and the highest scion shoot length (1.14 cm, 0.88 cm, 1.04 cm) obtained from Shami Furk/P. korschinskii , Ferragnes/ P. korschinskii and Dafadii/P. korschinskii combinations, while the lowest success rate was 50.63% with the Dafadii/P. orientalis combination. The liquid MS medium supplemented with 0.5 mg.l-1 BA + 0.1 mg.l-1 IBA achieved the highest micrografting success and scion shoot length. In conclusion, the results and observations in this research demonstrate the importance of using the P. korschinskii and P.communis as rootstocks for the tested almond cultivars, consequently, and benefiting from this research to improve almond cultivation and rehabilitation of damaged areas.
Language: English
Subfield: Plant Science
Domain: Life Sciences
SDGs: Zero hunger, Life on land
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7218330749