A COMPARISON OF TWO CRYOGENIC PROTOCOLS IN CRYOPRESERVATION OF APPLE SHOOT TIPS

Apple (Malus) is one of the most important fruit crops globally. Recently, two more efficient cryopreservation protocols: encapsulation-dehydration (Feng et al., 2013) and droplet-vitrification (Halmagyi et al., 2010), have been reported for apple shoot tips and appeared to be promising protocols applicable for long-term conservation of a wide range of apple genetic resources. The present study attempted to compare these two protocols in terms of survival and shoot regrowth rates, time required for recovery and number of survival cells in shoot tips following cryopreservation. Results obtained from the present study would provide valuable information on setting-up cryobanking of apple genetic resources and cryotherapy for apple virus eradication.