Project Number: 5402-21000-012-08
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Jul 12, 2010
End Date: Jul 11, 2014

Objective:
The objective of this cooperative research is identify methods for increasing tolerance to liquid nitrogen temperatures in avocado and Citrus crops and to determine if pathogens are eliminated during the cryopreservation process.

Approach:
Avocado and Citrus genetic resources will be obtained from the National Plant Germplasm System Repositories in Miami, FL and Riverside, CA, respectively. In vitro cultures will be established and propagated to serve as rootstocks for cryopreserved shoot tips. Cryoprotectant and liquid nitrogen exposure tests will be performed using shoot tips excised from field-grown budwood. Cryopreservation experiments will be performed using disease infected and clean plant materials to determine if liquid nitrogen exposure eradicates diseases from infected tissues.