Regeneration of Cryopreserved Pear Shoot Tips Grown in Vitro by Encapsulation-Dehydration

The preservation of pear germplasm, like that of other clonal germplasms, is difficult because it requires conservation of whole plants or their tissues. Among the currently available methods for long-term conservation of clonal germplasm, cryopreservation of shoot tips is the most reliable and cost- and space-effective option. Alginate-coated axillary shoot tips from in vitro-grown pear were conserved successfully in liquid nitrogen (LN) following dehydration. Shoot recovery from cryopreserved shoot tips was improved greatly after 8 weeks of cold acclimation, but recovery decreased slightly after then. The highest regeneration rate was observed when in vitro shoot tips were preincubated in MS (Murashige and Skoog) medium with 0.3 M sucrose for 48 h, and when alginate-coated shoot tips were precultured in MS medium with increasing sucrose concentrations (0.5 M and 0.7 M) for 8 and 16 h, respectively. When the encapsulated beads were dehydrated for up to 7 h [25% water content (fresh weight basis)] under laminar flow, the highest regeneration rate was observed in "BaeYun No. 3" (55.7%) and "Whanggeum" (43.3%) after warming from LN. This technique is useful as a practical procedure to cryopreserve plant material that is sensitive to freezing of the surrounding cryoprotectant medium. Therefore, this technique appears to be promising for the cryopreservation of shoot tips from in vitro-grown plantlets of pear germplasm.