In Vitro Conservation Through Slow-Growth Storage

The history of ex situ conservation is relatively short, not more than a century old. During the middle of last century, triggered by the realization that genetic erosion was threatening the existing landraces and wild relatives of the major food crops, global efforts to collect and conserve the genetic diversity of these threatened resources were initiated, predominantly orchestrated by FAO. National and international genebanks were established to store and maintain germplasm materials, conservation methodologies were created, standards developed, and coordinating efforts were put in place to ensure effective and efficient approaches and collaboration. In the spontaneously developing global conservation system, plant breeders played an important role, aiming at the availability of genetic diversity in their breeding work. Furthermore, long-term conservation and the safety of the collected materials were the other two overriding criteria that led to the emerging international network of ex situ base collections. The political framework for the conservation of plant genetic resources finds its roots in the International Undertaking of the FAO and became ‘turbulent rapid’ with the conclusion of the Convention on Biological Diversity. This paper reviews the history of the global ex situ conservation system with a focus on the international network of base collections. It assesses the major ex situ conservation approaches and methods with their strengths and weaknesses with respect to the global conservation system and highlights the importance of combining in situ and ex situ conservation.

Section: Description Of Ex Situ Germplasm Conservation Methods and Their Strengths And Weaknessesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Critical Review of the Current Global Ex Situ Conservation System for Plant Agrobiodiversity. I. History of the Development of the Global System in the Context of the Political/Legal Framework and Its Major Conservation Components

Engels

Ebert

2021

“…They found that during the first 6 months the pistachio plantlets remained green and healthy but after that the occurrence of shoot tip necrosis and death of the shoots in the cold stored plants was found; after 6 months the cold stored plantlets showed more genetic instability than the controls [ 158 ]. The studies conducted on slow-growth storage for many plant species are still very limited [ 159 ], including Pistacia spp. [ 20 ], due to almost all species requiring an appropriate conservation strategy.…”

Section: Pistachio Germplasm Propagation and Conservationmentioning

confidence: 99%

History, Phylogeny, Biodiversity, and New Computer-Based Tools for Efficient Micropropagation and Conservation of Pistachio (Pistacia spp.) Germplasm

Nezami-Alanagh

Gallego

2023

The word “pstk” [pistag], used in the ancient Persian language, is the linguistic root from which the current name “pistachio”, used worldwide, derives. The word pistachio is generally used to designate the plants and fruits of a single species: Pistacia vera L. Both the plant and its fruits have been used by mankind for thousands of years, specifically the consumption of its fruits by Neanderthals has been dated to about 300,000 years ago. Native to southern Central Asia (including northern Afghanistan and northeastern Iran), its domestication and cultivation occurred about 3000 years ago in this region, spreading to the rest of the Mediterranean basin during the Middle Ages and finally being exported to America and Australia at the end of the 19th century. The edible pistachio is an excellent source of unsaturated fatty acids, carbohydrates, proteins, dietary fiber, vitamins, minerals and bioactive phenolic compounds that help promote human health through their antioxidant capacity and biological activities. The distribution and genetic diversity of wild and domesticated pistachios have been declining due to increasing population pressure and climatic changes, which have destroyed natural pistachio habitats, and the monoculture of selected cultivars. As a result, the current world pistachio industry relies mainly on a very small number of commercial cultivars and rootstocks. In this review we discuss and summarize the current status of: etymology, origin, domestication, taxonomy and phylogeny by molecular analysis (RAPID, RFLP, AFLP, SSR, ISSR, IRAP, eSSR), main characteristics and world production, germplasm biodiversity, main cultivars and rootstocks, current conservation strategies of both conventional propagation (seeds, cutting, and grafting), and non-conventional propagation methods (cryopreservation, slow growth storage, synthetic seed techniques and micropropagation) and the application of computational tools (Design of Experiments (DoE) and Machine Learning: Artificial Neural Networks, Fuzzy logic and Genetic Algorithms) to design efficient micropropagation protocols for the genus Pistacia.

“…This shows that often combinations and variations of different slow-growth approaches need to be adapted for different species. An overview of growth limiting protocols is summarized by Chauhan, Singh and Quraishi [53].…”

Section: Setting Up In Vitro Collectionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges and Prospects for the Conservation of Crop Genetic Resources in Field Genebanks, in In Vitro Collections and/or in Liquid Nitrogen

Panis

Nagel

houwe

2020

The conservation of crop genetic resources, including their wild relatives, is of utmost importance for the future of mankind. Most crops produce orthodox seeds and can, therefore, be stored in seed genebanks. However, this is not an option for crops and species that produce recalcitrant (non-storable) seeds such as cacao, coffee and avocado, for crops that do not produce seeds at all; therefore, they are inevitably vegetatively propagated such as bananas, or crops that are predominantly clonally propagated as their seeds are not true to type, such as potato, cassava and many fruit trees. Field, in vitro and cryopreserved collections provide an alternative in such cases. In this paper, an overview is given on how to manage and setup a field, in vitro and cryopreserved collections, as well as advantages and associated problems taking into account the practical, financial and safety issues in the long-term. In addition, the need for identification of unique accessions and elimination of duplicates is discussed. The different conservation methods are illustrated with practical examples and experiences from national and international genebanks. Finally, the importance of establishing safe and long-term conservation methods and associated backup possibilities is highlighted in the frame of the global COVID-19 pandemic.