Developing coconut cryopreservation protocols and establishing cryo-genebank at RDA; a collaborative project between RDA and Bioversity International

Abstract

Coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) is one of the most important palms in the world. Storing coconut for a long term in a conventional seed genebank is not possible because its seeds are recalcitrant. Also field genebanks are not effective as they are prone to unknown undesirable climatic factors and diseases. Cryopreservation has been defined as a welcome alternative for field genebanks for the conservation of coconut germplasm. To develop and validate robust cryopreservation protocols for coconut and exploring the potential for other priority species, a collaborative project between the Rural Development Administration of Korea (RDA) and Bioversity International was initiated. In the framework of this project, three letters of agreement (LOAs) were finalised between Bioversity International and (i) The Sunchon National University (SNU, Korea), (ii) University Leuven (KU Leuven, Belgium) and (iii) the Philippine coconut authority (PCA, the Philippines). In this report, we present an overview of some of the activities, as well as some preliminary results. It showed that coconut embryos can be effectively transported with normal air courier services and normal plants can be grown therefrom. Also small meristem tips excised from in vitro plant can grow into normal plants. Finally, the 1-mm sized meristems excised from plants can survive the droplet-vitrification protocol.