Cryopreservation of Centaurea lachnopus Rech. f. Seeds and Establishment of the Cryopreserved Seeds under Laboratory and Greenhouse Conditions

Centaurea lachnopus Rech. f. is a biennial or perennial range specie which grows in Semnan province located in center of Iran. Narrow geographic range and ecological zone, small population size, and habitat degradation in one of its growing sites put this species under threat. To evaluate the possibility of long-term preservation of Centaurea lachnopus seeds, three pre-cryopreservation methods including PVS2, Desiccation, and 30% Glycerol were applied before incubation of the seeds under cryopreservation conditions (-196°C). The treated seeds were incubated in LN for period of 1 week, 1 month, and 1 year. The cryopreserved seeds were removed from liquid nitrogen and evaluated under laboratory and greenhouse conditions. The results showed that seeds of Centaurea lachnopus are able to tolerate cryogenic conditions. Effects of the cryopreservation pre-treatments including 30%Glycerol, Desiccation and PVS2 were significantly different from seed attributes and Desiccation showed the best effects on survival rate and other attributes of the cryopreserved seeds. The interaction effects between LN incubation periods and pretreatments were significant for some of the attributes. However some of the attributes did not show different means in different incubation periods. In greenhouse conditions, the cryopreserved seeds were germinated better and established more consistently than that of the laboratory conditions.