Articles
APPLICATION OF IN VITRO / CRYOPRESERVATION TECHNIQUES IN CONSERVATION OF HORTICULTURAL CROP GERMPLASM
Article number
447_98
Pages
483 – 490
Language
Abstract
Various strategies for the conservation of germplasm diversity of horticultural crops involving in vitro slow growth and cryopreservation techniques were investigated.
Protocols for in vitro conservation of germplasm collections of sweet potato, yams, taro, banana, ginger, garlic, medicinal and aromatic plants were developed and used.
Growth of cultures could be significantly reduced by the use of osmotic agents or by low temperature incubation.
However, slow growth in itself did not ensure prolonged survival of cultures.
Instead all the above mentioned crops could be conserved for over 12 months at 25°C on simple media with or without any modifications.
Employing these techniques over 800 accessions of these crops have been established and maintained.
Using in vitro cultures, germplasm of sweet potato, banana and other crops were also exchanged across the countries.
Various cryopreservation strategies have also been studied.
Employing encapsulation-dehydration technique, cryopreservation of shoot apices of 4 species of Dioscorea has been achieved.
Embryonic axes of various recalcitrant seed species such as tea, jackfruit, almond, trifoliate orange etc. were desiccated and cryopreserved.
Cryopreservation using seeds was also achieved in cardamom, black pepper, sweet potato and wild relatives of banana.
Genetic diversity of germplasm and maintenance of genetic stability of conserved germplasm have been investigated using cytological, biochemical (isozyme) and molecular (RAPD, RFLP) techniques.
Using the techniques, maintenance of genetic stability of in vitro conserved germplasm was confirmed in several cases.
These studies thus show the potential of these approaches for conservation of a wide range of crop germplasm.
Protocols for in vitro conservation of germplasm collections of sweet potato, yams, taro, banana, ginger, garlic, medicinal and aromatic plants were developed and used.
Growth of cultures could be significantly reduced by the use of osmotic agents or by low temperature incubation.
However, slow growth in itself did not ensure prolonged survival of cultures.
Instead all the above mentioned crops could be conserved for over 12 months at 25°C on simple media with or without any modifications.
Employing these techniques over 800 accessions of these crops have been established and maintained.
Using in vitro cultures, germplasm of sweet potato, banana and other crops were also exchanged across the countries.
Various cryopreservation strategies have also been studied.
Employing encapsulation-dehydration technique, cryopreservation of shoot apices of 4 species of Dioscorea has been achieved.
Embryonic axes of various recalcitrant seed species such as tea, jackfruit, almond, trifoliate orange etc. were desiccated and cryopreserved.
Cryopreservation using seeds was also achieved in cardamom, black pepper, sweet potato and wild relatives of banana.
Genetic diversity of germplasm and maintenance of genetic stability of conserved germplasm have been investigated using cytological, biochemical (isozyme) and molecular (RAPD, RFLP) techniques.
Using the techniques, maintenance of genetic stability of in vitro conserved germplasm was confirmed in several cases.
These studies thus show the potential of these approaches for conservation of a wide range of crop germplasm.
Authors
B.B. Mandal
Keywords
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