RESUMO
A droplet-vitrification protocol has been established for cryopreserving Chrysanthemum morifolium cv. Peak using axillary shoot tips and apical shoots of in vitro plants. In the optimized procedure, explants were submitted to a step-wise preculture in liquid sucrose-enriched medium (0.3, 0.5 and 0.7 M for 31,17 and 7 h, respectively). Precultured explants were treated for 40 min with C4 loading solution comprising (w/v) 17.5 percent glycerol + 17.5 percent sucrose, then dehydrated with PVS3 vitrification solution (w/v, 50 percent glycerol + 50 percent sucrose) for 60 min (axillary shoot tips) or 90 min (apical shoots). Explants were cryopreserved by direct immersion in liquid nitrogen in minute drops of PVS3 attached to aluminum foil strips. The optimal age of donor plants was 4-5.5 weeks for apical shoots and 7 weeks for axillary shoot tips, producing post-cryopreservation regeneration percentages of 81.9 percent and 84.9 percernt, respectively. Plants regenerated from cryopreserved samples showed no phenotypical abnormalities and similar profiles of relative DNA content were recorded for control and cryopreserved plants. Our results suggest that the modified droplet-vitrification protocol described in this paper is highly effective and may prove user-friendlier than the cryopreservation protocols already published for chrysanthemum.