A researcher at the University of Queensland in Australia has become the first person ever to freeze the tips of avocado shoots in liquid nitrogen and successfully revive them to create healthy plants in a bid to protect the world’s avocado supplies.
PhD student Chris O’Brien has developed the first critical steps to create a cryopreservation protocol for avocado which had never been achieved until now, despite more than 40 years of research.
The future of the fruit has been under threat in recent years due to bushfires, pests and diseases such as laurel wilt – a fungus which has the capacity to wipe out all the avocado germplasm in Florida, O’Brian said.
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