A PRELIMINARY STUDY OF THE DROPLET VITRIFICATION METHOD APPLIED ON LILAC

The MTT Plant Production Research unit urgently needs to transfer some lilac (Syringa sp.) accessions from the active vegetative nursery propagation phase into long-term preservation.
The modified droplet vitrification method was tested for the cryopreservation of lilac.
Currently, virus-free lilac mother plants are maintained at MTT in an isolated greenhouse.
In vitro cultures, maintained at normal growth conditions, are used for propagation.
In this study, apical buds from a virus-tested lilac accession (Syringa × henryi ‘Julia’) were excised from micropropagated plantlets.
The buds were pretreated on high sucrose Murashige and Skoog gelrite-gelled medium for three days with constant or stepwise increasing sucrose concentrations.
The buds were treated with a loading solution for 30 min and PVS2 for 45 min and subsequently frozen on aluminium foil strips.
No improvement was achieved by stepwise increasing sucrose concentrations during preculture.
We conclude that the droplet vitrification protocol in combination with 0.5 M sucrose pretreatment was a suitable method for cryopreservation of lilac.
Further research is needed to obtain an optimal cryopreservation protocol for lilac shoots.

I International Symposium on Cryopreservation in Horticultural Species

A. Nukari, J. Laamanen, M. Uosukainen

Syringa × henryi, genetic resources, pretreatment, sucrose, virus indexing

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2011.908.35