Approaches for the cryopreservation of Plantago algarbiensis, a rare endemic species of the Algarve.

BACKGROUND

Plantago algarbiensis is an endangered endemic species from the Algarve, Portugal.

OBJECTIVE

The main goal of this study was to investigate the viability of cryopreservation procedures in the conservation of seeds and nodal explants from this species.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Seeds were directly immersed in liquid nitrogen (LN) for 30 days. Two methods were tested for the cryopreservation of nodal explants, namely droplet-vitrification and encapsulation-dehydration. For both methods, nodal segments were precultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium and recovered on MS supplemented with 0.2 mg l(-1) 6-benzyladenine (BA), after freezing.

RESULTS

After 30 days in LN, the germination capacity of seeds was not affected. The regrowth percentages of cryopreserved nodal segments were approximately 60%. With the droplet-vitrification method, a regrowth percentage of 60.0+/-15.2% was obtained after 120 min exposure to PVS2 (plant vitrification solution 2) and with encapsulation-dehydration method the highest percentage, 63.3+/-9.6%, was achieved after 3 h desiccation.

CONCLUSION

Seed cryopreservation and cryopreservation of nodal segments by droplet-vitrification and encapsulation-dehydration are therefore effective approaches for the conservation of P. algarbiensis.