Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden

The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden’s Center for Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife (CREW) will undertake a three-year research study to provide critical information for botanical gardens in the U.S. and worldwide to aid in developing strategies and methods for cryopreservation as a tool for plant conservation. The research team will assess the viability of over 980 samples from CREW’s CryoBioBank, including seeds, spores, pollen, and tissues from 178 species, many among the nation's most endangered, that have been stored up to 24 years in liquid nitrogen. Current viability and genetic integrity will be determined and used to evaluate the effectiveness of the methods used at the time of banking, as well as effects of tissue, age, genotype, species, and storage location.