Advances of native and non-native Antarctic species to in vitro conservation: improvement of disinfection protocols.

Plants that inhabit Antarctica have raised scientific interest due to their resilience to climate change, abiotic tolerance mechanisms and potential biological applications. In vitro propagation is useful for conservation, genetic material availability of these species and avoiding mass collection in their habitat. In vitro culture protocols for the native plants Colobanthus quitensis and Deschampsia antarctica and the non-native Juncus bufonius have been affected by endophytic microorganisms that proliferate when introduced to tissue cultures.