S04 - Session O5 - Strategies for the conservation by biotechnological approaches of Abies nebrodensis, a relict conifer of Sicily

Authors: Waed Tarraf *, Tolga Izgu, Carla Benelli, Maurizio Lambardi, Maria Antoniett Germanà, Nourhen Jouini

The conservation of plant biodiversity is an important worldwide strategy especially for species at risk of extinction such as the Madonie fir ( Abies nebrodensis ). The A. nebrodensis is an endemic conifer of Sicilian mountains, its relic population consists of only 30 adult trees located in the "Parco delle Madonie" (North-Central part of Sicily), spread in an area between 1400 and 1650 meters a.s.l. It is considered as Critically Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) due to the dramatic genetic erosion and the poor natural regeneration. The LIFE4FIR project (LIFE18_NAT_IT_000164, 2019-2023), funded by the EU in the 'Nature and Biodiversity' sector, aims to protect the residual population and improve the conservation status of Madonie fir through the implementation of a seedbank and a cryobank for long-term conservation of pollen, embryogenic lines and seeds. Such species is characterized by very slow growth, non-stable production of cones and low germinability of seeds due to the high percentage of empty seeds. Therefore, the study initially focused on X-ray analysis to distinguish between the empty and full seeds to ensure the storage of seeds containing embryos at -18°C or ultra-low temperature (-196°C). To obtain embryogenic lines, the date of cones collection was identified to extract the immature embryos and to induce the embryogenic callus in vitro. The induction of embryogenic callus was obtained on DKW medium (Driver and Kuniyuki, 1984), enriched with 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid while the proliferation was tested on different substrates. The preliminary results underline the ability of immature embryos to form callus. Moreover, an effective protocol for pollen cryopreservation was developed by conducting appropriate germination tests before and after the immersion in liquıd nitrogen. The outcomes achieved with the Madonie Fir conservation project will open the way to similar strategies aimed to the safeguard of other critically endangered conifer species.