Plant germplasm preservation through the in vitro culture techniques.

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 also for the ex situ conservation. This is the object of some activities which are conducted by the Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (University of Perugia), involved in regional researches and national projects, through the application of the tissue cultures and the innovative encapsulation technology. Actually, these biotechnologies are employed inside our laboratory of in vitro cultures to collect a great number of spontaneous or cultivated genotypes (more than 70) of fruits, as plum, apple, pear, kiwi, blackberry, raspberry, olive, grape, citrus fruits and mulberry (in collaboration with the University of Palermo), vegetables, medicinal and ornamental species.