Effect of Cryopreservation on Plant Growth, Bulb Characteristics, and Virus Reduction of Garlic (Allium sativum L.).

Background: Cryopreservation is a promising plant germplasm preservation technique that provides genetically stable plantlets.

Objective: To investigate whether the cryopreservation protocol developed for garlic compromises the performance of the cryopreserved plants, compared to garlic plants grown in the field.

Materials And Methods: The field performance of cryopreserved garlic plantlets under in vivo conditions was compared with garlic derived from the field. We assessed both net photosynthetic rate, bulb characteristics and the efficiency of cryotherapy-induced virus eradication.

Results: The superiority of the morphological traits of cryopreserved garlic increased gradually with the growth of the garlic plant. Cryopreservation also improved the net photosynthetic rate, bulb diameter (by 13.4-18.2%), bulb weight (by 37.9-50.5%), and clove number per bulb (by 25.7-63.6%). The highest virus elimination rate due to cryopreservation was 75.0% for onion yellow dwarf virus (OYDV).

Conclusion: These findings suggest cryopreservation as a promising method for conservation and improvement of garlic.