Assessment of cold hardiness of apple and pear in vitro

For Lithuania and related northern regions, cold damage to plants is a major problem in horticulture, especially under changing, unstable climatic conditions.
Therefore, the aim of this research was to investigate cold acclimation traits of apple and pear.
The selected six Malus genotypes and four Pyrus genotypes were used for characterization of plant cold acclimation, assessing low temperature injuries in vitro.
The study established that cold acclimation at 4±2°C temperature decreased absolute value of critical temperature (CT50) by 0.5-2.1°C for the Malus microshoots and by 0.9-1.2°C for the Pyrus microshoots.
The duration of cold acclimation necessary to reach the maximum cold hardiness was genotype dependent and it was not less than 28 days.
The results would be useful to establish cold acclimation traits of the in vitro grown plants of the Rosaceae family required for preservation of genetic resources under low temperature or cryostorage conditions and studies on the plant adaptation to cold stress.

XIV EUCARPIA Symposium on Fruit Breeding and Genetics

R. Rugienius, G. Stanienė, D. Gelvonauskienė, I Stepulaitienė, P. Haimi, D. Baniulis, V. Stanys

acclimation, adaptivity, chilling, fruit trees, genetic resources, cultivars

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2017.1172.72