The influence of the timing of bud collection and meteorological factors on the effectiveness of introducing black currant accessions into in vitro culture

Background. The introducing of the accessions from the field collection into in vitro culture ensures their preservation under controlled environmental conditions. The literature sources offer contradictive information on the seasonal periods considered as the optimal ones for introducing samples of black currant Ribes nigrum L. into in vitro culture. This may be due to both the influence of abiotic factors and the genotypic characters of the accessions, as well as the characteristics of the explants and their cultivation conditions. In this regard, the purpose of this study was to analyze the influence of the period of buds’ isolation, and of the meteorological factors, such as temperature, precipitation, and humidity, on the results of introducing diverse black currant accessions from the field collection into in vitro culture. Materials and methods. The plant material included 30 black currant accessions from the VIR field collection. In different months of the summer periods of 2019-2022, buds were isolated from annual shoots to introduce them as explants into in vitro culture. All stages of introducing buds into in vitro culture were carried out in accordance with the Methodological Guidelines of VIR. Meteorological data were obtained from the VIR Department of Automated Information Systems for Plant Genetic Resources. The data were statistically processed using the “Statistica 10.0” package. Results. A strong contingency was found between the effectiveness of introducing explants into in vitro culture and the genotype, as well as the month and year in which the buds were selected. Meteorological factors influencing the results of introducing black currant explants into in vitro culture include temperature and air humidity on the day of bud collection and air humidity in the decade before taking explants. The duration of the period from the beginning of plants vegetation in the field collection to the date of bud sampling also had a significant impact on the result of introducing the explant into in vitro culture. Conclusion. In the case of bud selection in June, the proportion of infected explants is significantly lower, and the proportion of viable explants is higher, compared to buds taken in subsequent summer months. For the successful introducing of buds from a field collection into in vitro culture, the optimal weather conditions are low air humidity and relatively high temperature on the day of buds’ collection, as well as low air humidity in the decade before taking buds from plants of the field collection.