Current status and conservation of Pistacia germplasm.

The genetic erosion of Pistacia germplasm has been highlighted in many reports. In order to emphasize this and to focus more attention on this subject, national and international (especially IPGRI and IFAR) institutions have initiated projects proposing to characterize, collect and conserve Pistacia germplasm. Therefore, this paper reviews recent research concerning conventional (in situ and ex situ) and unconventional biotechnological conservation strategies applied to the preservation of Pistacia germplasm. As regards conventional conservation, the majority of germplasm collections of Pistacia species are preserved on farms (in situ) and in seed and field genebanks (ex situ), as well as in the wild, where they are vulnerable to unexpected weather conditions and/or diseases. Hence, complementary successful unconventional in vitro methods (organogenesis, somatic embryogenesis and micrografting) and slow-growth storage conditions for medium-term preservation of Pistacia are presented together with the morphological and molecular studies carried out for the characterization of its species in this review. Moreover, special attention is additionally focused on cryopreservation (dehydration- and vitrification-based one-step freezing techniques) for the long-term preservation of Pistacia species. Possible basic principles concerning the establishment of a cryobank for the successful conservation of Pistacia germplasm are also discussed.

Cryopreservation of Pistacia spp. seeds by dehydration and one-step freezing.

Cryopreservation protocols by dehydration and one-step freezing were developed for seeds from three Pistacia species, i.e., P. vera, P. terebinthus and P. lentiscus, which were characterised by different initial germination percentages (100%, 17% and 81%, respectively). In P. vera, a maximum of 90% germination was obtained following 8 hours drying in silica gel (corresponding to 11.7% moisture content on a FW basis) and direct immersion in LN. In P. terebinthus and P. lentiscus, shorter periods of dehydration (1 hour and 15 min, respectively) were sufficient to reduce their moisture content to about 20%, which resulted in peak seed germination percentages from cryostorage of 16% and 47%, respectively. Following cryopreservation, the seeds germinated better on semi-solid MS medium, than on cotton wool wetted with dH(2)O or liquid MS medium. Finally, in P. vera and P. lentiscus, high and significant correlation coefficients were obtained between the TTC viability test and seed germinability after recovery from LN, provided that seeds which were considered positive in the test showed completely or partially red embryonic axes coupled to completely red cotyledons.