Storage of pineapple shoot tips in liquid nitrogen for three years does not modify field performance and fruit quality of recovered plants

Pineapple production is under threat due to climate change. Hence, it is critical to maintain a diverse gene pool to develop improved cultivars. Cryopreservation represents a viable option for the long-term storage of germplasm with minimal space requirements and maintenance. Methods have been developed for cryopreservation of pineapple shoot tips but there is minimal information on the field performance of cryostored germplasm. Hence, the current study investigated the field performance of pineapple shoot tips after storage for 24 h, one, two and three years. The plant morphological characteristics assessed (plant height, D leaf (middle-aged) characteristics, fresh mass, number of leaves and stem base diameter) showed no differences between control or cryostored plants. For example, plant height across all treatments ranged from 97.45 ± 0.37 to 97.83 ± 0.28 cm and fresh mass from 4 735.79 ± 10.25 to 4 762.04 ± 13.15 g. In addition, it was established that fruit morphological characteristics, such as length, diameter and mass, were not affected by cryostorage. Furthermore, the nutritional content of fruit remained similar in plants regenerated from control or cryostored shoots. The ascorbic acid content of fruit showed little variability from 76.44 ± 0.12 in the control group to 76.53 ± 0.05 mg/100 ml juice in fruit regenerated from shoot tips stored for three years. Similarly, no differences were found in the levels of total titratable acids, overall acidity or pH. The Brix content indicated no significant differences in the values obtained from fruit produced from control plants (13.88 ± 0.04) or those from plants regenerated following cryostorage (13.84 ± 0.02 to 13.89 ± 0.03). Collectively, the results indicated that storage of pineapple shoot tips for up to three years did not have any adverse effects on field performance of plants or on fruit characteristics. This provides evidence that cryopreservation offers a suitable tool for the long-term storage of germplasm.