Selection of Salt-Tolerant Jojoba (Simmondisa chinensis L.) Cultivars via In Vitro Culture

Abstract

Jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis L.) is a perennial shrub adapted to dry and hot climates. It produces high-quality seed oil that is widely used in the industrial, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical sectors. Soil salinity is often a constraint to plants grown under dry and hot desert conditions. Thus, in the present study, we aim to select and establish salt tolerant-jojoba cultivars using in vitro culture. Jojoba seeds were sown on germination media that were supplemented with various amounts of seawater to achieve the final solute concentrations of 2000-, 3000-, and 5000 ppm. Shoot tips from seedlings selected on germination media with different solute levels were subsequently cultured on multiple-shoot induction media, followed by root induction media at the same solute levels as the germination media from which the explants were selected. We germinated, multiplied, rooted, and acclimatized cultivars that could sustain solute levels up to 3000 ppm. Among all cultivars selected at different salinity levels, those selected at 2000 ppm were found to have the highest growth and multiplication parameters during the multiple-shoot induction and rooting stages. In addition, these cultivars also contained high levels of chlorophyll a, b, and carotenoid contents.