2022年4月份，中科院昆明植物所的林亮博士接受Nature專訪，回顧了他在瀕危動植物種質資源超低溫保存的工作歷程以及其工作成果對未來的重要價值。

林亮博士是少數的把研究目標定位在超低溫下長期保存植物種子與組織領域的植物科學家，林亮博士的工作成果讓我們在2009年以前建設的低溫存儲體系換發青春，我們為林亮博士感到榮幸。

這個專訪讓我們回想起12年前的樣本庫設計與建設過程，我們把2007年在比利時參觀學習的成果用在了2008年的昆明植物所，使得細節元素即使在今天也不顯過時，充分展現了在有限經費條件下，如何讓存取標本更加人性化以及保障長期的安全性。

2017年12月，我們售后團隊與林亮博士一起對該系統做了整體的檢修服務，林亮博士嚴謹、認真地工作作風給工程師們留下深刻印象。
 

專訪原文如下：

Here at the Germplasm Bank of Wild Species of China at the Kunming Institute of Botany, we want to preserve the seeds of as many wild plants as possible from across China’s vast land area. I work on developing the best techniques to freeze plant seeds and tissues at ultracold temperatures, to maintain their viability for years. The idea is that if we plant these seeds again in hundreds of years, a plant will grow.

The picture shows me taking a sample of embryos from the seeds of a magnolia tree out of a liquid-nitrogen cryopreservation tank to test whether they’ll regrow when thawed. I dress in protective equipment from head to toe to protect me from the nitrogen, which has a temperature of −196 °C.

When I came to the institute in 2009 as a PhD student, it had just purchased its first liquid-nitrogen cryopreservation system, but no one knew how to operate it. I was the one to work it out.

Over the years, human activities and climate change have had a negative impact on plant biodiversity. The ultimate goal of the plant seed bank is to collect and preserve all wild plant species in China that are endangered, rare or valuable. We want to save these species before they go extinct. We’ve collected seeds from nearly 11,000 plant species, but that’s only one-third of what grows in China.

Many wild plants have genes that help them to survive in harsh environments and make them disease- or drought-resistant. In the future, we might need these genetic materials to breed new crops that can better adapt to the changing climate.

I am constantly amazed by how diverse and beautiful seeds are. Some of them are brightly coloured and others are star-shaped. I feel proud when I see the unfrozen seeds germinate in test tubes and gradually grow into large plants. We have three plants in the seed-bank lobby that we cultivated from preserved tissues, and they are all now taller than me.

Nature 604, 590 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01049-8

Plant scientist Liang Lin develops cryopreservation technology to store seeds and plant tissues at liquid-nitrogen temperature to conserve biodiversity.