Seed Cryopreservation of Secale montanum Guss.

Secale montanum Guss. is a perennial grass species grown in steep slopes of high altitude of Iranian rangelands. This species is naturally reproduces by seeds. Due to over-grazing of the plant, especially before maturity and production of seed in one hand and habitat destruction, land use change, species decline and climate change puts this species at risk. Therefore, long-term storage of its seeds makes future seeding of degraded rangelands possible. To evaluate the possibility of long-term preservation of Secale montanum Guss. seeds in cryogenic conditions (-196°C) seeds of the species were collected from the natural habitats. Three pre-cryopreservation treatments including PVS2, Desiccation, 30% Glycerol and Control were applied on the seeds. The treated seeds were incubated in LN (-196°C) for periods of 1 week, 1 month and 1 year. Subsequently, the cryopreserved seeds were removed from the liquid nitrogen and, seed germination seed establishment and some other traits were evaluated under laboratory, greenhouse and natural habitat conditions. The results showed that seeds of the Secale montanum are able to tolerate cryogenic conditions. Among the pre-cryopreservation treatments, Desiccation showed the best effects with average germination rate of 88% for 1 year storage in cryogenic condition. Although seed establishment percentages of the control and cryogenic seeds under field and greenhouse conditions were not high, but the results indicated that cryogenic seeds of the various pre-cryopreservation treatments were able to establish and grow well under field and greenhouse conditions.