Cryopreservation of 12 Vitis Species Using Apical Shoot Tips Derived from Plants Grown In Vitro

The availability of and easy access to diverse Vitis species are prerequisites for advances in breeding programs. Plant genebanks usually maintain collections of Vitis taxa as field collections that are vulnerable to biotic and abiotic stresses. Cryopreservation has been considered an ideal method of preserving these collections as safety backups in a cost-effective manner. We report a droplet vitrification method used to cryopreserve 12 Vitis species (Vitis vinifera cvs. Chardonnay and 'Riesling, V. actinifolia, V. aestivalis, V. jacquemontii, V. flexuosa, V. palmata, V. riparia, V. rupestris, V. sylvestris, V. ficifolia, V. treleasi, and V. xnovae angeliae) using shoot tips excised from plants grown in vitro. Our results demonstrated wide applicability of this technique, with regrowth levels at least 43% for 13 genotypes representing 12 Vitis species. We demonstrated that the droplet vitrification procedure can be successfully replicated by technical staff, thus suggesting that this method is ready for implementation.