Cryopreservation of Malus and Pyrus Wild Species in the ‘Fruit Genebank’ in Dresden-Pillnitz, Germany

A unique and valuable diversity of the Malus and Pyrus wild species germplasm is maintained ex situ in field collections in the ‘Fruit Genebank’ in Dresden-Pillnitz, Germany. (1) Background: The establishment of a duplicate collection is necessary to preserve this material safely from abiotic and biotic stress factors. (2) Methods: Two different techniques, cryopreservation using dormant buds and PVS2 vitrification using in vitro shoot tips, were applied and compared. (3) Results: In Malus altogether 180 accessions belonging to 32 species were processed with an average recovery rate of 39% within ten years using the dormant bud method. Accessions, 116 in number, achieved the criterion of 40% recovery which was 64.44% of all accessions tested. In the case of Pyrus germplasm a total of 35 accessions of 21 species and both techniques for cryopreservation were tested. In the results of these experiments the PVS2 method led to better results compared to the dormant bud method. (4) Conclusions: In Malus the dormant bud technique will be the method of choice for the future to build up the duplicate collection. Further experiments using both techniques are planned in the future to make a final decision for Pyrus.