AbstractShoot tips from in vitro-grown, cold-hardened stock plants of white poplar (Populus alba L.) were successfully cryopreserved at 196C by one-step vitrification. After preculturing at 5C for 2 days on hormone-free MS medium containing different sucrose concentrations, and loading for 20min with 2m glycerol and 0.4m sucrose, shoot tips were treated with the PVS2 vitrification solution and plunged directly into liquid nitrogen. Best survival rate (90%) was obtained when shoot tips were precultured on 0.09m sucrose, hormone-free MS medium, vitrified by exposure to PVS2 solution for 60min at 0C and, following cryopreservation, rewarmed at 40C and washed in 1.2m sucrose solution for 20min. Regrowth was improved by plating shoot tips on a gelled MS medium containing 1.5m N6-benzyladenine plus 0.5m gibberellic acid, while shoot rooting was achieved on MS medium containing 3m indole-3-butyric acid. Following this procedure, almost 60% rooted shoots were obtained from cryopreserved shoot tips.