In vitro long‐term storage of asparagus

Abstract

To assist with commercial production of asparagus (Asparagus officinalis L.) clones, a system for in vitro, long-term cold storage of high health asparagus germplasm was developed. In vitro mini-crowns, with and without storage roots, were stored on a medium consisting of Murashige and Skoog salts with the addition of 3% sucrose, 4% sorbitol, 0.4 mg/litre thiamine, 200 mg/litre glutamine, 100 mg/litre inositol, 1.0 mg/litre ancymidol, and 0.8% agar. The cultures were incubated at 6°C with a photoperiod of 16 h (light level of 70-90 µmol/m 2 per s). The role of sorbitol was examined, as was the value of photoperiod. After 16 months of storage, the viability and reculturing ability of the in vitro cultures was assessed. To date, the cultures have survived 2 years of storage with 100% success in regrowth to their original growth form in culture and on transfer to glasshouse conditions.

In vitro approaches for conservation of Asparagus racemosus Willd.

“…Through our experiments, an extended storage period was achieved in a standard culture room. Although low temperatures may be more effective for slowing the growth of some in vitro cultures (Fletcher 1994;Akdemir et al 2010), Tyagi et al (2009) were able to conserve cardamom effectively at 25±2°C, consistent with our findings. Thus, the temperature requirements appear to vary from species to species and may depend on the agro-climatic conditions in which a particular species is found.…”

“…The sugaralcohol sorbitol has an osmotic potential similar to that of mannitol in solutions at equivalent molarity and has been employed as an osmoticum in many species (Cordeiro et al 2014). Fletcher (1994) incorporated 4% sorbitol in the conservation medium for storage of Asparagus officinalis L. up to 16 mo. Moreover, the effect of these osmotic agents depends on the temperature, genotype, and culture conditions, as suggested by Marino et al (2010).…”

“…Micropropagation protocols for A. racemosus have been standardized (Kar and Sen 1985;Bopana and Saxena 2008;Pant and Joshi 2009). Further, in vitro tools involving slow-growth techniques have paved the way to conserve species ex situ and have been employed in many species (Withers 1980;Dodds and Roberts 1995), including other species of Asparagus (Fletcher 1994;Bekheet 2000). These slow-growth techniques are widely used due to their reliability, as genotypes can be effectively conserved without the loss of viability in the form of disease-free stocks in a controlled environment.…”

Ex situ conservation of endangered plant species of Latvia by slow growth storage

“…Development of process for rare species storage at low temperature at slow growth conditions has started quite recently (Holobiuc et al 2008;Mitoi et al 2009). These methods have been previously widely used commercially for plant cold storage in in vitro (Bertrand-Desbrunais et al 1992;Fletcher 1994;Negash et al 2001;Pereira et al 2003;Lambardi et al 2006;Capuana, Ponti 2008;Joshi, Jadhav 2013). It was found that species with easy cultivation in tissue culture in experiments at growth-limiting conditions were able to adapt for growth on media with osmolytes (sorbitol, mannitol).…”

In vitro minimum growth for conservation of Drosophyllum lusitanicum

“…According to Gollagunta et al (2005), growth, storage potential and post-storage performance of cultures are closely related to the sugar content. Several authors have observed increased survival of in vitro conserved cultures in culture medium containing high sugar concentration (Fletcher 1994, Sarkar et al 1998, Gollagunta et al 2005.…”