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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Corvallis, Oregon » National Clonal Germplasm Repository » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #87288
Title: CRYOPRESERVATION AND LONG-TERM STORAGE OF PEAR GERMPLASM

Author
item Reed, Barbara
item DENOMA, JEANINE - OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
item LUO, JIE - OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
item CHANG, YONGJIAN - OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
item Towill, Leigh

Submitted to: In Vitro Plant
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/24/1998
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Collections of important vegetatively propagated crops are usually maintained as plants in fields or potted in greenhouses or screened enclosures because they can not be grown from seed. Important seed-grown crops can have seed stored in several locations for insurance against loss of the plant but duplicating field collections, as duplicate plants or separate collections, is costly and requires large amounts of space. Cryoperservation techniques (storage of living plant tissue in liquid nitrogen) which were recently developed for long-term storage of pear trees may offer an efficient alternative to conventional field maintenance. Wild pears (Pyrus sp.) can be stored as seeds while cultivated pears may be kept as dormant buds or pollen from field-grown trees or shoot tips from in tissue culture-grown plants. Pear plants may now be cryopreserved in liquid nitrogen and stored for long periods (>100 yr) utilizing new techniques for tissue cultured shoot tips. Dormant bud freezing, and pollen and seed cryopreservation is being developed to complete backup collections for pear. This cryopreserved collection provides base (long-term) storage for the field-grown pear germplasm collection at the National Clonal Germplasm Repository, Corvallis, Oregon.

Technical Abstract: Germplasm collections of vegetatively propagated crops are usually maitained as plants in fields or potted in greenhouses or screened enclosures. Safety duplication of these collections, as plants in separate collections, is costly and requires large amounts of space. Cryopreservation techniques which were recently developed for long-term storage of pear germplasm may offer an efficient alternative to conventional germplasm collection maintenance. Pear (Pyrus L.) germplasm may now be stored as seeds (species), dormant buds or pollen (cultivars) from field-grown trees or meristems from in vitro-grown plants. Pear germplasm may now be cryopreserved and stored for long periods (>100yr) utilizing slow-freezing and vitrification of in vitro-grown shoot-tip meristems. Dormant bud freezing, and pollen and seed cryopreservation of other lines is being developed to complete the base collection for Pyrus. This cryopreserved collection provides base (long-term) storage for the field-grown pear germplasm collection at the National Clonal Germplasm Repository, Corvallis, Oregon.