Cryopreservation of Allium sativum L. (Garlic)

Abstract

The genus Allium comprises about 700 species. Several of them are important vegetables, spices and medicinal plants. The most important crop species are onion and shallot, Allium cepa L., garlic, Allium sativum L., leek, Allium ampeloprasum L. s.l., bunching onion, A. fistulosum L., chives, A. schoenoprasum L., Chinese chives, A. tuberosum Rottl. ex Spr., and rakkyo, A. chinense G. Don. Many other species are collected from the wild as spices or vegetables, or they are planted as ornamentals. Vegetative propagation is predominant in some of these species either because no seeds are set (garlic, great-headed garlic, rakkyo) or because of tradition, as in shallots. Seed-sterile hybrids are used as vegetables (top onions, gray shallots) or in the breeding of new ornamentals (as in subgenus Melanocrommyum). In all such cases, vegetative maintenance of genotypes is necessary. Due to continual vegetative propagation, virus occurrence is common in garlic. Meristem culture allows production of virus-free lines and, hence, is able to circumvent this problem as long as the material is kept permanently in vitro. In vitro storage is, therefore, preferable for this vegetatively propagated material.