| Popis: |
Pineapple is the third most important tropical fruit traded after banana and mango. In recent years, pineapple producers have faced production challenges due to unpredictable weather patterns as a consequence of climate change. In order to develop new genotypes with improved tolerance to these biotic and abiotic stresses, it is necessary to have access to a diverse gene pool, however, the germplasm currently stored in field gene banks are at risk from prevailing environmental conditions. Therefore, there is a need to develop and implement supplementary strategies to conserve plant germplasm under controlled conditions in the laboratory and cryopreservation represents the most viable option for this. To date, methods have been developed for cryopreservation of pineapple shoot tips but there is a lack of information on whether extended periods of storage in liquid nitrogen (LN) has any effect on the regeneration capacity and field performance of cryostored germplasm. Hence, the current study investigated the field performance of pineapple shoot tips after storage for 24 h, one, two and three years. Results were collected following nine months for plant morphological characteristics and 14 months for evaluation of fruit and nutritional characteristics. The results indicated that storage of pineapple shoot tips for up to three years did not have any adverse effects on field performance of plants or on fruit characteristics. This provides evidence that cryopreservation offers a suitable tool for the long term storage of germplasm. |
