Cryopreservation of Vitis vinifera L. somatic embryos by vitrification or encapsulation-dehydration.

Somatic embryos of Vitis vinifera cultivar Brachetto and Müller-Thurgau were obtained by immature anther and ovary culture through a two-step protocol routinely adopted. Long term cultures in active growth need frequent subcultures to maintain their morphogenetic potential and are subjected to the risk of genetic mutations as well as loss of material. Cryopreservation is an important tool for long term storage of germplasm without genetic alteration using minimum space and maintenance. The techniques of vitrification and encapsulation-dehydration were tested for grapevine embryo cryopreservation. Both the adopted techniques allowed a high embryo survival after LN treatment. Only 10 % embryos died after thawing; further growth was observed after transfer on recovery medium in at least half the embryos in each treatment. In some cases, embryogenic callus formation and direct secondary embryogenesis occurred on the recovered embryos