Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Freezing Tolerance in Plants: Implications for Cryopreservation.

Cryopreservation is a crucial technique for the long-term ex situ conservation of plant genetic resources, particularly in the context of global biodiversity decline. This process entails freezing biological material at ultra-low temperatures using liquid nitrogen, which effectively halts metabolic activities and preserves plant tissues over extended periods. Over the past seven decades, a plethora of techniques for cryopreserving plant materials have been developed. These include slow freezing, vitrification, encapsulation dehydration, encapsulation-vitrification, droplet vitrification, cryo-plates, and cryo-mesh techniques. A key challenge in the advancement of cryopreservation lies in our ability to understand the molecular processes underlying plant freezing tolerance. These mechanisms include cold acclimatization, the activation of cold-responsive genes through pathways such as the