The Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCAARRD) has provided yearlong funding support to improve the coconut somatic embryogenesis technology (CSet), which seeks to increase the production of quality planting materials of selected coconut varieties in the country.

CSet is a propagation technique of coconut planting materials, using plumular tissues of identified tall, dwarf, and hybrid varieties.

The Philippine Coconut Authority-Zamboanga Research Center (PCA-ZRC) and PCA-Albay Research Center (ARC) are implementing the projects, “Propagation of Quality Planting Materials of Baybay Tall (BAYT), Laguna Tall (LAGT), and Tacunan Dwarf (TACD) Coconut Varieties through CSet” and “Propagation of Quality Planting Materials of Selected Tall, Dwarf, and Hybrid Coconut Varieties through CSet,” respectively.

The project leaders are Dr. Susan M. Rivera of the PCA-ZRC, and Dr. Cristeta A. Cueto of the PCA-ARC.

“Both projects maintain and produce quality planting materials of selected coconut varieties, while also exploring protocol improvement to increase the regeneration efficiency of the PCA-ARC CSet protocol,” the DOST-PCAARRD said in a statement.

“Using the secondary somatic embryogenesis pathway, the number of somatic embryos and regenerants produced is expected to hasten and increase,” it explained.

The Council said the ex vitro transfer protocol is being modified to increase the survival rate of both fully developed and immature plantlets.

It said ex vitro pertains to growing the coconut planting material outside the tissue culture or in soil or potting mixture.

The DOST-PCAARRD said early this year, several CSet-derived planting materials were planted in the PCA-ZRC compound in Zamboanga City and by January 2022, those from PCA-ARC will be planted.

Cueto also leads another project, “Gene Expression Analysis during Coconut Embryogenesis” which seeks to determine the genetic and molecular mechanisms involved in CSet.

“ The project is currently awaiting the transcriptome sequences from South Korea of the ribonucleic acid (RNA) samples isolated from various developmental stages of somatic embryogenesis of the BAYT,” the Council said.

“Further bioinformatics analysis will commence later on for the identification of genes associated with somatic embryogenesis, and eventually, develop gene markers for the refinement and standardization of the coconut response during in vitro culture.”

In vitro is a process whereby cells or tissue samples of living organisms are maintained and cultivated in a controlled environment within a glassware or other laboratory vessel.

Serving as science and technology (S&T) consultant during the review and evaluation of the projects was Dr. Maria Genaleen Q. Diaz.

The meeting was conducted in preparation for the succeeding year of implementation of the projects, the Council said.

The meeting was attended by project team members from PCA-ZRC and PCA-ARC; and DOST-PCAARRD representatives headed by Dr. Allan B. Siano, officer-in-charge of the Crops Research Division (CRD).