Abstract

European hazelnut (Corylus avellana) is an important temperate nut crop. Wild germplasm is of great importance for breeding programs to develop new varieties with resistance to biotic and abiotic factors. The only native population of C. avellana is registered in Western Kazakhstan; this species listed in the Red Book of the country. Therefore, the present investigation was conducted during 2018–2019 at the Institute of Plant Biology and Biotechnology, Almaty, Kazakhstan with an aim to assess the state of this population and to collect nuts for in vitro preservation. During the expedition, trees, leaves, involucres, nuts, and kernels were characterized for 60 wild C. avellana accessions using 27 qualitative and quantitative standard descriptors following Biodiversity International guidelines. The study revealed an unsatisfactory state of C. avellana population. Of particular concern is the lack of natural seed propagation in the population. Most of the accessions (70.0%) lacked nut bearing, and 30.0% had only sporadic nuts. A high degree of damage by pests and diseases was recorded. The few seeds collected from 18 nut bearing trees were introduced into invitro culture as excised embryonic axes. In 16.7% of the excised embryonic axes, necrosis and darkening of the tissues were observed. In vitro shoots obtained from 83.3% embryonic axes were indexed for endophyte contamination on the 523 detections medium and in vitro collection of aseptic shoot culture was established. These accessions from Kazakhstan have never been cultured before, so this study contributes to the preservation of important Corylus genetic resources.