سلطنة عمان وزارة الزراعة المديرية العامة للبحوث الزراعية والحيوانية Sultanate of Oman Ministry of Agriculture Directorate General of Agriculture & Livestock Research The Current Status of Agricultural Biotechnology in Sultanate of Oman Eng. Alghalyia H. Al Mamari Biotechnology Researcher Tissue Culture and Biotechnology Research Laboratory Date Palm Research Center Regional Agricultural Biotechnology Network Expert Consultation Meeting December 2007 Cairo-Egypt

Agricultural Biotechnology in Oman  Ministry of Agriculture: - Tissue culture laboratory / Jemah Research Station - Biotechnology laboratory / Rumais  Sultan Qaboos University (College of Agriculture and College of Science): - DNA fingerprinting. - Disease diagnosis. - Genetic transformation.  Some private Universities. Academic level

Tissue culture laboratory 6 Green houses. 14 Shade houses 2 Glass houses. Rooms for tissue culture. A) Infrastructure:

Biotechnology laboratory DNA extraction. PCR amplification. Agarose and PAGE gel- electrophoresis. DNA fingerprinting A) Infrastructure:

B) The human resources: 1 Biotechnology expert (Ph.D.) 1 Tissue Culture Specialist (Ph.D) 2 Agriculture engineers (M.Sc.) 4 Agriculture engineers (B.Sc.) 14 Technicians 7 Temporary technicians 4 Workers

C) Objectives: Introduction of tissue culture and molecular techniques to the Sultanate. Mass propagation of local and imported date palm cultivars using the tissue culture technique. Multiplication of other plant species for different national projects. Establishment of a genetic map for date palms. Molecular characterization of the Omani genetic resources. Molecular diagnostics.

Activities A. The Tissue Culture section: Date Palm:  Developed protocols and culture media for 46 cultivars ( 24 are Omani ones).  Production of > 30 thousand date palm plantlets per year.  Distributed > 160 thousands plantlets of date palm. Other crops:  Propagated 60 thousand banana plantlets from different cultivars.  Propagation of 8 thousand potato plantlets per years (For the National potato seed production program).  Propagation of pineapple and strawberry.

B. The Biotechnology Section: Date palm:  Development of a date palm breeding program.  Establishment of two date palm mapping populations.  Fingerprinting of date palms cultivars. Activities Cont…

Other crops:  Fingerprinting of 15 landraces of Omani alfalfa.  Molecular analysis of the DNA of the casual agent (phytoplasma) of the witches’ broom disease of lime.  Participation in the study of Mango decline (molecular analysis).  Participation in the Citrus Development Program. Activities Cont…

Title: Date Palm Development in the GCC Countries Institutions: NARS in the GCC and ICARDA Project sections: - Crop management - The genetic resources of date palm - Dates processing. - Biotechnology. Biotechnology objectives: 1) Development of genomic tools for germplasm characterization in date palm. 2) Assessment of genetic diversity in date palm. International project

International project Cont…  2 Training courses were carried out in Muscat: - Molecular markers for fingerprinting of date palm / November Date palm in Vitro culture: applications and prospects / May 2007

Constraints Limited exchange of information between different institutions within the country. High running costs of laboratories. Limited trained staff. Little data available about Omani date palm characterization. Limited financial fund.

Recommendations Establishing agricultural biotechnology network The network will help in:  Exchange experience and information in agricultural biotechnology.  Enhance cooperation among institutions and countries in the region.  Exchange experts.  Assist capacity building.  Provide training for researcher to improve their skill.  Technology transfer.

Justification for Establishing Agricultural Biotechnology Network  Improve the Near East and North Africa cooperation on issues related to agricultural biotechnology.  Assist in capacity building.  Facilitate the dissemination of information.  Reduce duplicative efforts among institutions and countries.

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