Cryopreservation of Italian cultivars of hazelnut

The present study was performed to optimise the cryopreservation protocol in Italian cultivars of Corylus avellana L. Lateral buds excised from in vitro grown plantlets of 'Tonda Gentile Romana' (TGR) and 'Montebello' (MB) were cryopreserved by the encapsulation-dehydration technique. The effect of dehydration of beads with sucrose (0.5, 0.75 or 1 M) for 1 or 3 days, of desiccation with silica gel for 6 or 8 h and of application of two cytokinins (N-6-benzyladenine or meta-Topolin) in the regrowth phase was evaluated. The highest regrowth was obtained dehydrating alginate beads with 0.75 M sucrose applied for 1 day and with desiccation for 8 h with silica gel in both cultivars. On the other hand, the regrowth response to the type of cytokinins in the recovery medium was different in the two cultivars: in TGR the highest regrowth, 40% with N-6-benzyladenine and 47% with meta-Topolin, was reached without significant differences between the two cytokinins, while in MB meta-Topolin induced significant higher regrowth (40%) than N-6-benzyladenine.