Summary
To prevent the loss of important genetic information cultivars are conserved in several collections of gene banks. In principal, there are two options for the medium to long-term storage of potato cultivars: storage as in vitro plantlets or microtubers and storage of meristems or shoot-tips in liquid nitrogen. In the Braunschweig potato cultivar collection, 360 cultivars are maintained under slow-growth conditions. Ten microplantlets of each cultivar are stored in test tubes containing filter paper bridges and 5 ml Murashige and Skoog (MS) liquid medium. The cultures were maintained at 10°C with a light intensity of 2 klux and 16 hours-day and can be stored under these conditions up to three years. Two hundred and forty-five cultivars are cryostored in liquid nitrogen. About 300 trimmed shoot-tips of each cultivar are incubated in MS-Towill-medium and then transferred into the cryoprotective solution. After an incubation time of about 2 hours trimmed shoot-tips fixed on an aluminium foil were put in cryo vials and stored in a container. The survival rate of the thawed, trimmed shoot-tips varies from 55%–100%. More important for a gene bank, however, is the plant regeneration. The average regeneration of all cultivars is about 40%.
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Mix-Wagner, G. The conservation of potato cultivars. Potato Res 42, 427–436 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02358159
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02358159