Plant Regeneration Through Meristem Culture from Vegetative Buds of Mulberry (Morus bombycis Koidz.) Stored in Liquid Nitrogen

Abstract

Intact vegetative buds of mulberry (Morus bombycis) attached to shoot segments were prefrozen, stored in liquid nitrogen, thawed, and the meristems excised for culture on Murashige and Skoog's medium supplemented with 1 mg 1−1 BA to regenerate plants. Either prefreezing at −10 °C or −20 °C along with rapid thawing at 37 °C or prefreezing at −20 °C or −30 °C along with slow thawing at 0 °C was a suitable condition for high percentages of survival and shoot regeneration. Potted mulberry plants could be finally obtained from the cryopreserved material. The system using intact buds as the material for cryopreservation is quite simple when compared to conventional systems using isolated meristems together with cryoprotectants.