Plant Gene and Trait 2025, Vol.16, No.1, 1-14 http://genbreedpublisher.com/index.php/pgt 11 8 Conservation and Sustainable Utilization of Pineapple Germplasm 8.1 In situ and ex situ conservation strategies In situ conservation, refers to maintaining the genetic diversity of plants in their native habitats or traditional cultivation environments. However, this approach faces increasing challenges due to increasing environmental pressures and human development. To address this problem, some regions have proposed more community-participatory solutions. For example, in Cabaceiras do Paraguaçu in Bahia, Brazil, local residents have successfully achieved the goal of in situ conservation by planting traditional pineapple varieties in their own yards (Da Silva et al., 2018). This approach reduces dependence on traditional agricultural environments and also enables urban or rural residents to actively participate in the protection of germplasm diversity. In contrast, ex situ conservation emphasizes the systematic preservation of germplasm outside its native environment. The Active Germplasm Bank (AGB), managed by the Embrapa Cassava and Fruit Research Center, a tropical crop research institution in Brazil, collects and maintains a rich variety of pineapple genetic materials (Souza et al., 2019). Ex situ conservation also includes a series of laboratory techniques, such as in vitro preservation and cryopreservation. Da Silva et al. (2016; 2021) showed that in vitro preservation can effectively maintain the genetic stability and morphological characteristics of pineapple materials and is suitable for long-term preservation. Cryopreservation is the storage of plant materials (such as stem tips and pollen) at extremely low temperatures to achieve longer-term maintenance of biological activity. Experiments have shown that pineapple stem tips and pollen stored under ultra-low temperature conditions still have good activity and genetic stability, providing strong technical support for future germplasm utilization and recovery (Da Silva et al., 2017; Villalobos-Olivera et al., 2019). 8.2 Biotechnological approaches in germplasm conservation Biotechnology plays an important role in the conservation of pineapple germplasm. For example, in vitro conservation technology maintains the survival rate and stability of pineapple tissue culture seedlings by optimizing culture medium conditions. Studies have found that M2 medium is the best choice for long-term preservation of pineapple germplasm resources. It can maintain high survival rate and inhibit growth rate, which is conducive to long-term storage). The application of inhibitors (such as paclobutrazol) in in vitro tissue culture can reduce the number of subcultures, thereby improving the efficiency of germplasm conservation (Canto et al., 2004). Another important biotechnology is cryopreservation, which achieves long-term storage by freezing plant tissues to extremely low temperatures (usually liquid nitrogen temperature -196 °C). For pineapples, researchers have developed a technique called droplet-vitrification to preserve shoot apical tissues of cultivated and wild types. This method has good preservation effects and is more efficient than traditional preservation methods. It is easy to operate and has a very good survival rate after recovery (Souza et al., 2015). More importantly, Villalobos-Olivera et al. (2021) found that pineapple plants that were cryopreserved and revived in the field performed basically the same as the untreated control group, with no significant differences in growth rate, yield or morphological characteristics. This fully verifies the safety and reliability of this method in terms of genetic stability and agricultural adaptability. Therefore, cryopreservation technology is particularly suitable for rare, endangered or genetically valuable pineapple germplasm resources, providing a solid technical guarantee for the construction and future use of the global pineapple gene bank. Acknowledgments We are deeply grateful to Mr. Rudi Mai and Mr. Qixue Liang for their assistance in data verification and material organization, which greatly contributed to the improvement of our manuscript. Additionally, heartfelt gratitude is extended to the two anonymous peer reviewers for their comprehensive evaluation of the manuscript.
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