Cryopreservation of Shoot Tips of Kiwifruit Seedlings by the Alginate Encapsulation-dehydration Technique
1994 Volume 11 Issue 2 Pages 122-128
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1994 Volume 11 Issue 2 Pages 122-128
Shoot tips from in vitro-grown seedlings of kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa (A. chev.) C. F. Liang et A. R. Ferguson var. deliciosa) were successfully cryopreserved by the encapsulation-dehydration technique.
Shoot tips cold-hardened at 5°C for 6 weeks were progressively precultured on agar media with increasing concentrations of sucrose (0.1M, 0.4M and 0.7M) daily at 5°C. The cold-hardened and precultured shoot tips trapped into alginate-coated beads containing 0.5M sucrose were treated in a medium supplemented with 1.0M sucrose for 16 hours at 5°C. Beads containing one shoot tip were then dehydrated by up to 29% of their water content (fresh weight basis) on sterile dry silica gel in a desiccator at 25°C. After dehydration, about 10 dried beads were placed in a 2-ml cryotube and then immersed into liquid nitrogen (LN). The average rate of shoot formation after rapid warming was about 80%. This method will be useful for the long-term storage of kiwifruit germplasm.
