Format: ORAL

Hugh W. PRITCHARD1*, Xiaojian HU1, Daniel BALLESTEROS2, Liang LIN1

1Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming Institute of Botany, China. 2University of Valencia, Burjassot, Spain.

Cryobiotechnology embraces three components of low temperature science: natural, physiological adaptation and capability; fundamental science of various stress tolerances; and innovative design for biobanking of various explants (cryopreservation). Even though cryo-based solutions are widely accepted as a critical part of a strategy to combat the risk of biodiversity loss, an understanding of species’ cryobiotechnology is still patchy. Nonetheless, progress over the last 20 years has been made on the cryo responsivity of species’ explants, leading to a better comprehension of cryo phenotypes, i.e. the functional traits that contribute to cryo success in the natural, experimental and biobanking setting. These traits relate to, inter alia, the extent or ease of cellular physiological adaptation (including elicitation) to cold and dehydration, the dimensional (physical) limits for tissue cryo and species’ differences in cryoprotectant permeability, seed lipid composition and thermal properties, and inter-specific variation in somatic embryogenesis and regrowth of explants in vitro. We will provide an overview of these multiple cryo phenotypes and identify gaps in knowledge that need to be addressed by a future research agenda.