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From 7:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m.
Where have all the flowers gone—or where are they going? About 45% of all plant species are facing the threat of extinction from habitat loss, unsustainable use, and climate change. Maintaining their habitats is the ideal, but as insurance, many species can also be backed up by seed banking, to provide materials to grow the plants and restore populations in case they are lost in the wild. However, seed banking can be lethal or unworkable for many species. How do we provide a back-up for those? This talk will describe work with cryobiotechnologies, or methods for conserving plant tissues at extremely low temperatures in liquid nitrogen in cryo-banks. Work at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden's CREW is focused on developing such methods to use with these exceptional plant species, such as endangered oaks, and storing them in our Frozen Garden to ensure that they are preserved for the future.
Dr. Valerie C. Pence is the Director of Plant Research at the Center for Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife (CREW) at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden. Her work focuses on applying in vitro methods and cryobiotechnologies to the conservation of plant species that cannot be conserved in conventional seed banks, species known as exceptional species. She received her B.S. at Mount Holyoke College and M.S. and Ph.D. from Northwestern University, with post-docs at Purdue University and the University of Florida. Her research has included developing protocols for the in vitro propagation of rare plant species and the cryo-conservation of shoot tips, embryos, gametophytes, spores, seeds, and pollen of species from across the U.S., many critically endangered, as well as studies on how species, culture medium, and environment interact in vitro.