Methods of Conservation of the Plant Germplasm. in Vitro Techniques

In the last decade there has been an alarming increase in the number of disappearing species from the spontaneous flora due to the pressures put upon the environment (land clearing, drainage, pollution of the soil etc.) affecting their vitality, determining their number to fall under their biological possibilities of regeneration. In the present there are 60.000 vascular species on the verge of extinction on Earth and, from the European flora, evaluated at 12.000 of species, over 2000 are considered rare or extinct. The conservation of vulnerable species can be made either by traditional methods (see table 1) or by modern methods (see table 2). From the last, in vitro micropropagation presents a significant interest in the purpose of obtaining a large number of plants from the endangered plant. The plant biotechnologies laboratory of the University of Oradea, Faculty of Environmental Protection is designed to pursue the development of the modern methods of conservation. The paper presents some general aspects of the plant germoplasm conservation through the in vitro multiplication of some species of interest from the Romanian flora (Leontopodium alpinum, Drosera rotundifolia, Arnica montana, Dianthus spiculifolius, Syringa josikaea, Sequoia sempervirens) and also laboratory aspects of the in virto reaction of the above named species with the help of diverse methods: phenotypical, cytological (in situ hybridization), biochemical (elecrophoresis aspects etc.) and molecular (molecular markers).