Orchid cryopreservation

Abstract

Orchids are lush and highly valuable plants due to their diversity and the beauty of their flowers, which increases their commercialization. The family Orchidaceae comprises approximately 35,000 species, distributed among more than 1,000 distinct genera and 100,000 hybrids, totaling approximately 8% to 10% of all flowering plants. With the advance of agriculture and the constant destruction of their natural habitat, orchid species are collected in an indiscriminate manner by collectors and vendors, and this extractive activity threatens many species with extinction, drastically reducing their genetic variability in nature. Therefore, it is essential to seek alternatives that make the preservation of such species feasible using techniques with low maintenance costs that provide greater storage time and that enable good phytosanitary conditions for the plant material for commercial use. Cryopreservation involves the conservation of biological materials at ultra-low temperatures, generally in liquid nitrogen at -196 ºC or in its vapor phase at -150 ºC. This is the only technique currently available for the long-term preservation of the germplasm of plant species that are vegetatively propagated or that have unviable, recalcitrant or intermediate seeds. The objective of this bibliographic review is to report on the importance, methods and application of cryopreservation for orchids. According to the studies reviewed, this is an incipient, developing and relevant field that generates a lot of discussion and requires further research relative to the type of treatment to use for cryopreservation and the methodology to be applied according to the species. The types of methods that are used for cryopreservation and the large variation in the responses of orchids to the cryopreservation methods observed in this study emphasize the need for the development of more appropriate protocols for the preservation of orchids.