Articles
Cryopreservation and cryotherapy research on horticultural crops in New Zealand
Article number
1234_4
Pages
29 – 36
Language
English
Abstract
The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited holds thousands of accessions from over 100 cultivated plant species and their wild relatives.
Many of these accessions are clonally propagated and held in the field, exposed to the vagaries of climate and biotic threats.
The incursion of a highly virulent strain of Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae in 2010 reduced the genetic diversity of kiwifruit, one of the most commercially important horticultural crops in New Zealand.
This accelerated research into and implementation of cryopreservation technologies.
We have successfully developed protocols for cryopreservation of grapevine, gentian, potato, raspberry, apple and kiwifruit.
Conservation of our potato germplasm collection (more than 700 accessions) using droplet vitrification is underway.
With successful development of protocols for apple and kiwifruit cryopreservation, work is now underway to develop the core collections of these crops for conservation.
In addition to long-term storage of crop germplasm, cryo-technologies are also being used to eradicate pathogenic microorganisms from infected clonal material.
Using droplet vitrification, we have eradicated Cucumber mosaic virus from gentian, three leafroll viruses from four clones of grape, and two species of Pseudomonas bacteria from kiwifruit.
Cryotherapy, however, was not sufficient to eradicate Raspberry bushy dwarf virus from infected raspberry.
Many of these accessions are clonally propagated and held in the field, exposed to the vagaries of climate and biotic threats.
The incursion of a highly virulent strain of Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae in 2010 reduced the genetic diversity of kiwifruit, one of the most commercially important horticultural crops in New Zealand.
This accelerated research into and implementation of cryopreservation technologies.
We have successfully developed protocols for cryopreservation of grapevine, gentian, potato, raspberry, apple and kiwifruit.
Conservation of our potato germplasm collection (more than 700 accessions) using droplet vitrification is underway.
With successful development of protocols for apple and kiwifruit cryopreservation, work is now underway to develop the core collections of these crops for conservation.
In addition to long-term storage of crop germplasm, cryo-technologies are also being used to eradicate pathogenic microorganisms from infected clonal material.
Using droplet vitrification, we have eradicated Cucumber mosaic virus from gentian, three leafroll viruses from four clones of grape, and two species of Pseudomonas bacteria from kiwifruit.
Cryotherapy, however, was not sufficient to eradicate Raspberry bushy dwarf virus from infected raspberry.
Authors
R. Pathirana, L. Mathew, R. Jibran, D.A. Hunter, E.R. Morgan
Keywords
Gentiana triflora, droplet vitrification, apple dormant buds, virus eradication, Pseudomonas, potato, kiwifruit, raspberry, grapevine, germplasm conservation
Online Articles (45)