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Desiccation and freezing tolerance of recalcitrant seeds and embryonic axes of Prunus napaulensis (Ser.) Steud.: a crop wild relative of cherry

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Abstract

Prunus napaulensis (Ser.) Steud. is one of the important indigenous fruit trees of North-eastern India found in wild under niche habitat, facing immense exploitation due to its medicinally important fruits. Detailed studies on seed storage biology are required for devising appropriate ex situ and in situ conservation strategies of this species. Accordingly, desiccation and freezing tolerance were investigated in seeds and excised embryonic axes (EA) for standardizing long-term conservation through cryopreservation. The large-sized fresh seeds with 46% moisture content (MC) were found highly sensitive to desiccation, with 80% loss in viability when desiccated to 30% MC. In contrast, the freshly isolated embryonic axes (49% MC) showed remarkable tolerance when desiccated to 11% MC and yielded high recovery (81%) after cryopreservation when cultured on Murashige and Skoog medium with 0.1 mgL−1 6-benzylaminopurine and 0.05 mgL−1 naphthaleneacetic acid. Viability reduced significantly when EA were dehydrated below critical MC (11%) both in desiccated and cryopreserved embryos. Differential response of tissues in the EA was also recorded, with radical exhibiting high degree of desiccation and freezing sensitivity. Excised EA when cultured in vitro formed shoots but failed to develop roots. This study demonstrates that P. napaulensis seeds have recalcitrant storage behaviour and cryoprotection would be required for ex situ germplasm conservation.

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Acknowledgements

Sincere thanks are accorded to the Director, ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), New Delhi, for supporting this study. We would like to acknowledge the contribution of the Officer-in-Charges at ICAR-NBPGR, Regional Station, Shillong and Shimla, for facilitating the exploration and collecting of the germplasm. Special thanks to Dr. J.K. Ranjan, Principal Scientist, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, for help in statistical analysis. The diagrammatic representation of P. napaulensis fruit was created using the software BioRender (https://biorender.com).

Funding

This work was carried out under intra-mural projects at ICAR-NBPGR, funded by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), namely (i) Investigating desiccation and freezing tolerance in non-orthodox seed species, dormant buds and pollen for cryopreservation (project code: PGR/TCCU-BUR-DEL-02.02); (ii) Augmentation, characterization, evaluation, maintenance, regeneration, conservation, documentation and distribution of genetic resources of temperate fruits, vegetables, and medicinal & aromatic plants (project code: PGR/GEV-BUR-SHM-01.02); (iii) Augmentation, characterization, evaluation, maintenance, regeneration, conservation and documentation of genetic resources of horticultural crops and their wild relatives (project code: PGR/PGC-BUR-SHL-01.02).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tissue Culture and Cryopreservation Unit (TCCU), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), New Delhi, 110012, India

    Vartika Srivastava & Anuradha Agrawal

  2. ICAR-NBPGR, Regional Station, Shillong, Meghalaya, 793103, India

    Subarna Hajong

  3. ICAR-NBPGR, Regional Station, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, 171004, India

    Rahul Chandora

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  1. Vartika Srivastava
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  2. Subarna Hajong
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  3. Rahul Chandora
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  4. Anuradha Agrawal
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Contributions

VS and SH conceived the work and conducted the experiments. RC and SH collected the germplasm. VS carried out data analysis and curation, wrote original draft. AA provided guidance, project administration and helped in manuscript drafting and editing. All authors have reviewed and approved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Anuradha Agrawal.

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Srivastava, V., Hajong, S., Chandora, R. et al. Desiccation and freezing tolerance of recalcitrant seeds and embryonic axes of Prunus napaulensis (Ser.) Steud.: a crop wild relative of cherry. Genet Resour Crop Evol 69, 1571–1583 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-021-01320-3

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