Safeguard of plant germplasm through the in vitro culture

The last trends of the intensive cultivation systems need the employment of genotypes suitable to assure high productions; at the same time, large variations concerning the management of the most part of plant germplasm are required. All this involves a significant reduction of the native genetic resources consequently to the decreasing of cultivated species/varieties. Therefore, the biodiversity protection is considered the most important priority for the environment management and the development of a sustainable agriculture. Several recent activities are intended to preserve the genetic variability and to individuate effective and innovative tools for the plant germplasm safeguard. Increasing interest concerns the in vitro culture techniques for the ex situ conservation. For some years the application of the tissue cultures and the innovative encapsulation technology is carried out with that goal at the Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences (University of Perugia).