Reconsideration of the term ‘vitrification’ as used in micropropagation

Abstract

The term vitrification is currently used to describe two types of processes related to tissue-cultured plant material. The first is used to describe organs and tissues having an abnormal morphological appearance and physiological function. The second is used to describe the transition from liquid to solid state, i.e. the formation of ice during low temperature storage of in vitro cultured cells, tissues and organs. Use of the same term to define two greatly different processes in the same research area can only lead to confusion, especially for key words. Thus it is appropriate to reconsider the usage of vitrification in the first sense mentioned above. It is recommended that the term vitrification should no longer be used to indicate plant material with an abnormal morphological appearance and physiological function, and should be substituted by the term 'hyperhydricity'.

Influence of calcium content of tissue on hyperhydricity and shoot-tip necrosis of in vitro regenerated shoots of Lavandula angustifolia Mill.

“…Tissue culture techniques have been applied to Lavandula plants (Quazi 1980;Calvo and Segura 1989;Jordan et al 1990;Gras and Calvo 1996;Andrade et al 1999;Echeverrigaray et al 2005;Zuzarte et al 2010;Machado et al 2011;). However, the performance and survival of in vitro cultures of many plant species are often hampered by the phenomenon of hyperhydricity (Debergh et al 1992), including lavender species. Hyperhydricity can lead to irreversible loss of regenerative ability of the tissue (Gaspar et al 2000) and other detrimental changes, and ultimately death.…”

Plant Somatic Embryogenesis: Some Useful Considerations

“…These plants are not able to survive the stress imposed by the transfer of the in vitro to the ex vitro environment. In order to have success in this transfer process, it is necessary that the plants to undergo through a gradual change to aquire their normal anatomical stage for a succesful aclimatization process (Debergh et al, 1992).…”

Direct shoot induction ofPaeonia lactiflora‘Zhong Sheng Fen’ and rejuvenation of hyperhydric shoots

“…The performance and survival of in vitro cultures of many plant species are often hampered by hyperhydricity (Debergh et al 1992), a phenomenon of deformity in which the shoots become translucent during tissue culture. Several *Corresponding author.…”