In vitro medium-term conservation of Myrtus communis L.

Clonal propagation of myrtle can be successfully achieved by micropropagation and, for many reasons related also to this, it would be of interest to make a method available for medium-term conservation of in vitro cultures. In our work we investigated the effect of low-temperature storage on the survival and proliferation capacity of microshoots. The influence of pre-treatments with abscisic acid and of conservation on mannitol-containing media were also investigated. It was found that myrtle can be easily stored for at least 6 months at 8°C, recovering its proliferation capacity after this period.