[Consequences of plant tissue cryopreservation (phenotype and genome)]

The question about the correspondence of regenerants after cryopreservation to the initial organisms has been the focus of attention of cryobiologists. The correspondence has been established for morphological and physiological characteristics and the content of DNA fragment in flowering plants and algae. But no less investigations point to some changes in the phenotype and the appearance of DNA polymorphism in specimens of both plant sections. Changes in DNA methylation at cytosine after cryopreservation of flower plant tissues have attracted considerable interest. Thus, after freezing and thawing, changes in the phenotype and genome may occur, and the latter changes proceed by two mechanisms: mutations and modifications of DNA methylation.