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Volume 14
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10.3390/plants14040600
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Article

New Method for Enhancing Coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) Embryo Dehydration: An Important Step Towards Proficient Cryopreservation

by
Amirhossein Bazrafshan
1,*,
Sisunandar Sudarma
2,
Sundaravelpandian Kalaipandian
1,3,4,
Julianne M. Biddle
1,
Zhihua Mu
1,5,
Eveline Yee Yan Kong
1,3,
Naga Prafulla Chandrika Nulu
1,* and
Steve W. Adkins
1,3
1
School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability, The University of Queensland, Gatton, QLD 4343, Australia
2
Department of Biology, Universitas Muhammadiya Purwokerto, Banyumas 53182, CJ, Indonesia
3
Centre for Horticultural Science, Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, The University of Queensland, Indooroopilly, QLD 4068, Australia
4
Department of Bioengineering, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences (SIMATS), Saveetha School of Engineering, Chennai 602105, TN, India
5
School of Breeding and Multiplication Sanya Institute of Breeding and Multiplication, Hainan University, Sanya 572025, China
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Plants 2025, 14(4), 600; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14040600
Submission received: 9 December 2024 / Revised: 4 February 2025 / Accepted: 6 February 2025 / Published: 17 February 2025
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Tissue Culture and Plant Regeneration)
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Abstract

The coconut (Cocos nucifera L.), a valuable tropical crop, is rapidly declining in genetic diversity due to natural disasters, pest and disease attack, and land clearing for other crops. Seed banking is impractical for coconut conservation due to its large, recalcitrant seed, and maintaining field gene bank collections is costly and vulnerable to environmental pressures. Cryopreservation offers a promising alternative method for conserving coconut genetic diversity, but the success in recovering cryopreserved materials remains limited, with few studies consistently reporting high rates of recovery. This highlights the need for improved cryopreservation protocols, particularly in tissue dehydration, which is one of the critical steps in the process of cryopreservation and plant recovery. A desiccator was developed that enabled rapid embryo dehydration with ultra-dry airflow. The desiccator reduced embryo moisture content to 20% (the predetermined viability threshold) within 6 h representing a 2-h improvement when compared to a previous dehydration approach, while maintaining a high germination rate (71%). Smaller embryos (500 to 550 mg fresh weight) desiccated faster than larger embryos (800 to 900 mg fresh weight) but germination was reduced (30%), making small embryos unsuitable for cryopreservation. A 5-day sucrose (0.4 M) pre-treatment further reduced the dehydration time to 4 h, while maintaining a high germination rate (70%). These advances in the use of a sucrose pre-treatment, the rapid embryo dehydration, and selection of large embryos size will help to enhance the success of coconut embryo cryopreservation and recovery.
Keywords: coconut conservation; moisture removal; embryo desiccation; cryopreservation; sucrose; pre-treatment; high-recovery; embryo size coconut conservation; moisture removal; embryo desiccation; cryopreservation; sucrose; pre-treatment; high-recovery; embryo size

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MDPI and ACS Style

Bazrafshan, A.; Sudarma, S.; Kalaipandian, S.; Biddle, J.M.; Mu, Z.; Kong, E.Y.Y.; Nulu, N.P.C.; Adkins, S.W. New Method for Enhancing Coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) Embryo Dehydration: An Important Step Towards Proficient Cryopreservation. Plants 2025, 14, 600. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14040600

AMA Style

Bazrafshan A, Sudarma S, Kalaipandian S, Biddle JM, Mu Z, Kong EYY, Nulu NPC, Adkins SW. New Method for Enhancing Coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) Embryo Dehydration: An Important Step Towards Proficient Cryopreservation. Plants. 2025; 14(4):600. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14040600

Chicago/Turabian Style

Bazrafshan, Amirhossein, Sisunandar Sudarma, Sundaravelpandian Kalaipandian, Julianne M. Biddle, Zhihua Mu, Eveline Yee Yan Kong, Naga Prafulla Chandrika Nulu, and Steve W. Adkins. 2025. "New Method for Enhancing Coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) Embryo Dehydration: An Important Step Towards Proficient Cryopreservation" Plants 14, no. 4: 600. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14040600

APA Style

Bazrafshan, A., Sudarma, S., Kalaipandian, S., Biddle, J. M., Mu, Z., Kong, E. Y. Y., Nulu, N. P. C., & Adkins, S. W. (2025). New Method for Enhancing Coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) Embryo Dehydration: An Important Step Towards Proficient Cryopreservation. Plants, 14(4), 600. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14040600

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