Vitrification Behavior of Plant Vitrification Solutions (PVS) at Different Cooling and Warming Rates and Storage Periods

ALINE SCHNEIDER TEIXEIRA; MILOS FALTUS; JIRÝ ZÁMECNÝK; MARIA ELENA GONZALEZ BENITO; ANTONIO D. MOLINA-GARCÍA

Cambridge

Simposio; AMORPH 2014 THE FELIX FRANKS SYMPOSIUM A CELEBRATION; 2014

Plant Vitrification Solutions (PVS) are concentrated aqueous solutions, containing large amounts of sugars and other low molecular weight solutes, such as glycerol, DMSO or ethylene glycol, frequently employed to facilitate the vitrification of plant tissues during cryopreservation protocols. Different Plant Vitrification Solutions (PVS1, PVS2, PVS2 mod, PVS3 and PVS3 mod) were investigated using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), under a wide range of cooling (20°C min-1 and liquid nitrogen quenching) and warming (5, 10 and 20°C min-1) rates and storage periods (1 day, 1 week, 1 month and 2 months). The glass transition temperature (TG) in the re-warming process was characterized by its change in heat capacity (∆Cp), evaluated at its inflection point. Under the present experimental protocol, the PVS3 mod showed the highest TG among the five solutions, meanwhile PVS2 presented the lowest transition temperature. These differences can be related to different molecular interactions within the solutions, and they may be linked with the role of PVS in cryopreservation. Despite the expected variation with cooling or warming rates, the TG of all the PVS studied did not significantly change. A small difference could only be found between the more extreme rates, but it was not statistically significant. Storage period also had little effect in these solutions glass behavior. The associated ∆Cp had a more complex relationship with rates and storage period. Work funded from project ?CRYODYMINT? (AGL2010-21989-C02-02), Spanish ?Plan Nacional I+D+i 2008-2011? and projects No. QH92163, Ministry of Agriculture, and LD12041, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic, M.C.I. A.S. Teixeira was supported by CSIC, within the JAE-Pre program, partially funded from the European Social Fund. The preferred presentation section is Session 1 (morning) Fundamentals (1): water, aqueous solutions, and glasses. Carbohydrates and proteins in aqueous solutions and glasses.