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Title: Dormant buds

Author
item Towill, Leigh
item Ellis, David

Submitted to: Book Chapter
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/1/2007
Publication Date: 12/1/2007
Citation: Towill, L.E. and D.D. Ellis. 2008. Cryopreservation of Dormant Buds pp. 421-441. In B. Reed (ed.) Plant Cryopreservation: A practical guide. Springer Publishing, New York, NY.

Interpretive Summary: The long-term storage of plants in freezing environments (cryopreservation) has been confined to relatively few plant species. The use of dormant buds from field grown material offers a relatively simple method to accomplish long-term storage of plants in freezing conditions. The problem is that cryopreservation of dormant buds has been successful with relatively few plants. This book chapter summarizes the successes of cryopreservation of dormant buds and highlights many of the difficulties in using this technique. Further, the chapter provides step-by-step protocols for preparing dormant buds from numerous species for cryopreservation. This chapter is intended as a lab guide for those actively in the field of genetic resource preservation and cryopreservation of plant material.

Technical Abstract: Dormant vegetative buds from diverse species can be preserved using cryopreservation. Sakai (1960) provided one of the first studies showing that winter twigs of poplar (Populus sieboldi) and willow (Salix koriyanagi) could survive low temperatures if slowly cooled prior to immersion in liquid nitrogen. A later study demonstrated that this simple methodology was also applicable to twigs of several fruit species (Sakai and Nishiyama 1978). With rising interest in the preservation of genetic resources, methodologies have been further developed for fruit, nut, forest and ornamental species that can cold acclimate. Although dormant buds from cold hardy herbaceous perennial species might also be useful for cryopreservation, there are few studies, with the exception of garlic, that have addressed the use of cryopreservation to preserve dormant buds from herbaceous species. In this chapter we discuss the successes, limitations and need for further research to apply this technique to other species. We also include step-by-step protocols for the successful cryopreservation of numerous species. This chapter is intended for use by people in the field of genetic resource conservation as well as researchers using cryopreservation as a tool to understand plant biology.