Approaches for in vitro conservation of woody plants germplasm

Abstract

The conservation of plant genetic diversity aims at preserving as much as possible extant species by using innovative and complementary approaches to guarantee the effec-tiveness of the safeguarding strategies and to face present problems and future threats. The development and implementation of different in vitro conservation techniques have provided improvements for the international exchange of germplasm, for the storage of different in vi-tro culture forms and for products generated by biotechnology. These methods are also a valuable alternative to relieve the need of large lands extensions, where reserve collections of trees belonging to many woody species are traditionally kept. This chapter provides in-formation of several study cases, describes some useful protocols, and aims at presenting a brief overview of currently available techniques for in vitro conservation to medium and long-term of woody plant germplasm.