EFFECT OF DESICCATION AND STORAGE-TEMPERATURE ON THE CONSERVATION OF CULTURES OF OIL PALM SOMATIC EMBRYOS

Survival of clumps of oil palm somatic embryos stored at -12 and -80-d egrees-C was recorded during a 6-month storage period in comparison wi th that of control clumps cryopreserved in liquid nitrogen. Non-desicc ated clumps of embryos did not withstand one month of storage at -12-d egrees-C and only 6% of clumps placed at -80-degrees-C survived after 3 months if they had been briefly immersed in liquid nitrogen before t he storage period. Survival of desiccated clumps stored at -12-degrees -C decreased progressively down to 27 and 3% after 6 months with and w ithout transitory immersion in liquid nitrogen before storage, respect ively. Survival of desiccated clumps of embryos stored at -80-degrees- C did not vary during the experiment and was comparable to that of clu mps cryopreserved in liquid nitrogen (87-100%).