Abstract
Cryopreservation in liquid nitrogen is the only method available to ensure safe and cost-effective preservation of various bioresources, including plant cultured cells. The cryopreservation protocol for cultured cells requires high cell viability after storage in liquid nitrogen to ensure the regeneration of suspension cultures and to avoid the selection of particular types of cell. In this study, we tried to cryopreserve tobacco BY-2 by encapsulation simple prefreezing method and encapsulation vitrification method.
BY-2 cells were successfully cryopreserved by both encapsulation simple prefreezing method and encapsulation vitrification method. Many of cells immobilized in alginate gel beads survived the storage in liquid nitrogen and recovered their growth ability after rewarming. The encapsulation simple prefreezing method achieved higher cell viability and more rapid regeneration of suspension cell cultures than the encapsulation vitrification method. These results suggest that the encapsulation simple prefreezing method is better for cryopreservation of BY-2 cells.
