Biotechnological Approaches for Conservation of the Genus Pistacia
Climate change with the combination of increased population growth, unplanned urbanization, habitat loss and degradation, pollution and diseases, overexploitation of valuable species are the major causes of the loss of plant biodiversity. Moreover, since environment and environmental factors will change faster than the most of the plant's adaptation, conservation strategies become critically essential for preservation of plant species. In this chapter, we described the current status of biotechnological conservation approaches for Pistacia species. Since in vitro conservation and most of cryopreservation methods rely on tissue culture based methods, we described here micropropagation, micrografting, and somatic embryogenesis procedures in addition to in vitro conservation and cryopreservation in Pistacia species. Because there is no one 'universal protocol, biotechnological conservation studies for Pistacia are still limited with a few species of the genus as described in this chapter. Development and optimization of appropriate techniques especially for long term preservation of different Pistacia species can lead to establish cryobanks to conserve germplasm. Furthermore, the developed technologies will provide to prevent possible genetic erosion of Pistacia species.