Meetings and training

The training school on cryopreservation of dormant buds was held on 22-23 May 2024 in Tebano, near Faenza, Italy, at Centro Attivita Vivaistiche (CAV), which is a world leader centre for the genetic and phytosanitary certification of nursery material. CAV made its facilities available and provided appropriate rootstocks and expertise to train nine ECPGR members of the Cryopreservation Working Group in the methodology of grafting apple dormant buds after their cryopreservation. Trainees from nine countries, selected for their involvement in national efforts to develop cryopreservation capacities, had the opportunity to assist lectures on the general principles and state of the art of plant cryopreservation, offered by trainers Bart Panis (Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT), Milos Faltus and Alois Bilavcik (Crop Research Institute, Czech Republic), Saija Rantala (Luke, Finland) and Maurizio Lambardi (CNR-IBE, Italy). The theoretical lectures were complemented by practical sessions, during which everyone was provided with a grafting knife and had the opportunity to practice grafting apple buds under the supervision of expert technicians and thus familiarize themselves with a technique that they intend to implement for their own collections. The meeting was concluded with a general discussion on the opportunity to develop strategic collaborations to advance the cryoconservation of the European collections. The availability of the most advanced cryopreservation centres to share their knowledge and expertise within the framework of the Cryopreservation Working Group was considered critically essential by several partners who intend to develop autonomous cryobanks. The proposal to develop agreements whereby a few centres could serve a subregional storage function was also appreciated as an opportunity to raise efficiency. For example, this type of scenario might be suitable in the South-East European region. Here, one or more countries are almost ready to start institutional cryopreservation, while others might benefit by depositing their material in nearby countries and/or establishing multilateral safety-duplication agreements.  The ECPGR Grant Scheme was indicated as a possible way to kick-start this type of agreement as part of collaborative capacity-building initiatives to be proposed for funding.

The group also had the opportunity to visit the facilities of  ‘VitroLeaf’, the new top-class micropropagation laboratory of ‘Battistini Vivai’ (Battistini Nursery) in Cesena.

Acknowledgments are due to Maurizio Lambardi, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, IBE-Istituto per la BioEconomia, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy. He originally proposed and later organized the Training School, with full support from IBE.