In Vitro Selection for Abiotic Stress in Date Palm

In vitro-selection of date palm cultivars with an enhanced tolerance to abiotic stress represents a great support to the breeding program. This could lead to variants with superior agronomic quality and/or enhanced performance but also to genotypes harboring new traits such as tolerance to drought and salinity. In an era where a race has started towards functional food and nutraceuticals, this source of variation could also be explored to improve the nutritional value of dates. This chapter summarizes the recent progresses in date palm in vitro-selection and provides an outlook about future applications of the technique in this socio-economically important crop. It also highlights some of the challenges faced by this crop with regard to climate change and global warming.