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Pollen

Pollen cryopreservation can be a useful adjunct to a conservation strategy.  For example, crosses might be made between disjunct populations of self-incompatible genotypes in order to produce seed.  Since the longevity of some pollen is short, cryopreservation can be used to maintain viability to make crosses in plants separated by space and over different growing seasons, or it can be stored long-term to help maintain genetic diversity into the future.

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Ganeshan S, Rajasekharan PE, Shashikumar S, Decruze W (2008) Cryopreservation of pollen. Plant Cryopreservation – A Practical Guide pp. 443–464. doi: 10.1007/978-0-387-72276-4_17

Panella L, Wheeler L, McClintock ME (2009) Long Term Survival of Cryopreserved Sugarbeet Pollen. J Sugarbeet Res 46:1–10. doi: 10.5274/jsbr.46.1.1

Philpott M, Ballesteros D, Georgi LL, Hebard FV, Culley TM, Pence VC (2015) Seed production of American chestnut (Castanea dentata) using pollen stored 20 years in liquid nitrogen. The American Chestnut Foundation Annual Meeting, State College PA. October 2015.

Rajasekharan P (2010) Pollen cryopreservation feasibility studies in Momordica doica and M. sahyadrica. IUP J Genet Evol 3:1–4.

Rajasekharan PE, Ganeshan S (2019) Current perspectives on pollen cryopreservation in horticultural species. Acta Hortic 1234:47–56. doi: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2019.1234.6

Reed BM, Hummer KE (2013) Cryopreservation and maintenance of hop material in the usda germplasm collection. Acta Hortic 1010:191–198. doi: 10.17660/actahortic.2013.1010.22

Souza FVD, de Souza EH, da Silva RL (2018) Cryopreservation of pollen grains of pineapple and other bromeliads. Methods Mol Biol. 2018; 1815:279-288. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-8594-4_19. PMID: 29981129.

Video Resources

Use of low temperatures to preserve pollen of species that cannot be preserved under conventional seed bank conditions by Anna Nebot

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I obtained my conservation biology degree at the University of Valencia (Spain) in 2012. After that I conducted a stage at the Biodiversity Conservation Centre (CCB) of Sardinia (Italy) and in 2017 I got my PhD in Botany at the University of Cagliari. At the beginning of my career I specialized on reproductive biology studies of endemic and threatened Mediterranean plant species. In 2017, as a postdoc, and under the supervision of Hugh Pritchard and Daniel Ballesteros, I worked on desiccation tolerance and long-term pollen preservation of several wild species. And after that I investigated about the optimum medium to test the viability of fresh and stored pollen of several Cycad species that were preserved at Nong Nooch Botanical Garden in Thailand. Nowadays I am a researcher at the Botanical Garden of the University of Valencia.

Pollen collection & preservation: A how-to guide by Lisa Hill & Chris Walters

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Ensuring that seed and pollen samples that come to NLGRP are alive – and stay alive – is one of NLGRP’s top priorities. I manage the labs that perform viability testing on seeds in the United States national collection, as well as on research material like seeds, pollen, and fern spores, which are used to improve storage methods and aging detection. Some of our biggest challenges come from wild plant species, many of which are rare or endangered. I work with diversity: in plant material, researchers, seed analysts, data managers and new technologies, all geared towards keeping the collection alive and healthy.
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