Micropropagation, Acclimatization and Genebanking of Horticultural Crops

Dear Colleagues,

In vitro propagation (or tissue culture) is an important process in plant propagation. After explant induction and somatic embryo/callus production, plant materials can be placed in a suitable medium to become seedlings or encapsulated and transformed into artificial/synthetic (syn) seeds for short- or medium-term preservation or delivery. Due to seedling mortality during the introduction and reintroduction stages, acclimatization, which is the process of transferring plants from an aseptic artificial environment to the outside world, is a vital final step of in vitro micropropagation. The encapsulation process has advantages over traditional micropropagation that can result in the need for excessive subculturing, unpredictable mutations, larger space requirements, and higher labor needs, which are costly. Synthetic seeds containing propagules (plants’ reproducible organs) such as nodes, shoots, callus, somatic embryos, and protocorms are contained in a gelatinous matrix. The use of axillary buds and shoot tips derived in vitro enables the acquisition of inexpensive, easily obtained propagules for storage. To date, cryopreservation is the only vital methods for conserving plant germplasm and living cells in liquid nitrogen. In the past two decades, cryopreservation has been widely used as an alternative method for plant germplasm storage. We welcome both critical review articles and original research articles focusing chiefly, but not exclusively, on topics related to the following keywords.

Dr. Amir Khoddamzadeh
Prof. Dr. Wagner Vendrame
Dr. Uma Rani Sinniah
Guest Editors

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• in vitro culture
• micropropagation
• horticultural crops
• tissue culture
• genebanking
• cryopreser-vation
• synthetic seed (artificial seed)
• seed germination
• bioreactor
• ornamentals
• tropical plants
• subtropical plants
• acclimatization
• medicinal plants
• ornamental plants
• flowers
• fruit trees
• encapsulation
• embryo rescue
• plant growth regulators
• germplasm conservation
• botanic gardens