First meeting of the Cryopreservation Working Group

The First meeting of the Working Group on Cryopreservation was organized on 3-5 May 2023 in Prague, Czech Republic, hosted by the Crop Research Institute. Fourteen (14) countries were represented by 18 members of the Working Group attending the meeting in Prague, three participants were observers from involved institutions and three were attending online.

The meeting was opened by the two co-Chairs Milos Faltus (Czech Republic) and Bart Panis (Belgium), who explained the need to bring together experts on cryopreservation to share knowledge and information and offered an introduction to the main concepts and state of the art of plant cryopreservation. Lorenzo Maggioni, ECPGR Secretary, explained the ECPGR network context and principles to the members of this new Working Group. Among various observers, Dave Ellis, former genebank manager of the International Potato Center and now CGIAR consultant, offered an online presentation on the Global Plant Cryopreservation Initiative, advising on the need to create an efficient global network to ensure proper conservation for future generations. He invited the group to maintain a strong collaboration with this global initiative.

All the Working Group members provided reports on the status of cryopreservation in their respective countries, including information on methodologies used, prioritized species, internal coordination, existing projects and main constraints and limitations.

The members were enthusiastic about the opportunity to operate as a group with enhanced opportunities to share knowledge, organize trainings, and develop standard protocols and strategies for increased collaboration. Networking and training were considered high-priority activities, considering that several members and countries are at the initial stages of developing their expertise in this field. The ongoing ECPGR Activity on garlic in which the Working Group is involved was thought to be the appropriate forum to start developing a joint strategic European concept. The group also intended to prepare a collaborative project proposal to develop standard protocols for droplet vitrification and dormant buds cryopreservation and will use the existing opportunities to seek ECPGR funding.

All the presentations are available below, and a report of the meeting will be prepared with specific country reports prepared by all the members.

Click below to access the playlist with the video recordings of the meeting (7 videos).