Tissue culture technology in conservation of threatened plant species of Latvia

To meet the requirements of the Convention on Conservation of Biological Diversity and internationally accepted botanical garden targets, the National Botanic Garden of Latvia started the elaboration of in vitro conservation methods for threatened plant species of Latvia. The objective of the present work was to develop a reliable protocol for in vitro conservation of threatened plants. Seeds and other materials of 40 threatened plant species from natural habitats were collected. In total 37 species were introduced in sterile conditions. For 20 species culture was initiated by seed germination and for six species – from shoot apex explants. Seed germination in sterile culture was not observed for 11 of experimental species. In fi ve cases seed germination failure might be due to incomplete development of seeds. Normal organogenesis was observed in medium without hormones. In culture, the introduced species had different growth potentials in vitro. Development of germplasm conservation technique by minimal growth storage was started for species with a high multiplication rate.