Avo Toast Fans Can Chill 'Cos QLD Scientists Have Guaranteed Avos Of the Future

Here’s hoping they can also figure out how to pay off my avocado mortgage.

A University of Queensland PhD Student, Chris O’Brien, has successfully created zombie avocados. Okay maybe they're not really 'zombie' avos, but he did succeed in freezing two types of avocado cultivars using liquid nitrogen and brought the shoots 'back to life' to grow small avocado trees.

Freezing and reviving fruit for preservation purposes is not a new concept, as we have seen with bananas and grapes, but scientists had previously struggled with how to make it work for the expensive berry. (Yes, avocados are berries.)

Mr O’Brien has explained that the purpose of cryopreservation was to save biological diversity ensure the existence of avocados into the future in case something unexpected were to wipe it out.

"The aim is to preserve important avocado cultivars and key genetic traits from possible destruction by threats like bushfires, pests and disease such as laurel wilt—a fungus which has the capacity to wipe out all the avocado germplasm in Florida," he said.

This guy is literally preserving the fruit so that we can continue to inhale smashed avo toast forever.

How does it work?

To preserve the shoot tips, Mr O’Brien placed them on a strip of aluminum foil, to allow for extra fast cooling and rewarming, then the sprouts are placed into a 'cryotube', which is a plastic tube that is able to stand very low temperatures, before being placed in liquid nitrogen.

"Liquid nitrogen does not require any electricity to maintain its temperature, so by successfully freeze avocado germplasm, it’s an effective way of preserving clonal plant material for an indefinite period," said Mr O’Brien.

Image: The University of Queensland

Mr O’Brien’s trials of priming the tips of the plants with vitamin C and using pre-treatments like exposing them to cold temperatures and applying sugar to the shoots helped him successfully preserve and rehydrate the fruit.

To revive the shoots, the stems are pulled from the cryotubes and placed on a petri dish that contains a sugar mixture to rehydrate the fruit. After about 20 minutes, the shoots are recovered and ready to plant.

Having about an 80 per cent success rate with Reed avocado plants, Mr O’Brien explained how quick the process actually is.

"In about two months they have new leaves and are ready for rooting before beginning a life in the orchard," he said.

Image: The Univeristy of Queensland

With the countless threats of avocado extinction that we’ve heard over the years, this is music to the ears of millennials and Gen Z'ers alike.

The future: Avo in space.

The University of Queensland’s Centre for Horticultural Science’s Professor Neena Mitter teased the idea of bringing the avocado shoots into space when human technology allows us to travel beyond our planet.

"I suppose you could say they are space-age avocados—ready to be cryo-frozen and shipped to Mars when human flight becomes possible," she said.

"But it is really about protecting the world’s avocado supplies here on earth and ensuring we meet the demand of current and future generations for their smashed 'avo' on toast."

Whether they’re zombie avocados or space avocadoes, I don’t care, I’m just excited for breakfast.

Header Image: The University of Queensland