Chapter 8 Biotechnological Approaches for Conservation of the Genus Pistacia Hülya Akdemir and Ahmet Onay Abstract Climate change with the combination of increased population growth, unplanned urbanization, habitat loss and degradation, pollution and diseases, overexploitation of valuable species are the major causes of the loss of plant bio- diversity. Moreover, since environment and environmental factors will change faster than the most of the plant’s adaptation, conservation strategies become critically essential for preservation of plant species. In this chapter, we described the current status of biotechnological conservation approaches for Pistacia species. Since in vitro conservation and most of cryopreservation methods rely on tissue culture-based methods, we described here micropropagation, micrografting, and somatic embryogenesis procedures in addition to in vitro conservation and cryop- reservation in Pistacia species. Because there is no one ‘universal protocol,’ biotechnological conservation studies for Pistacia are still limited with a few species of the genus as described in this chapter. Development and optimization of appropriate techniques especially for long-term preservation of different Pistacia species can lead to establish cryobanks to conserve germplasm. Furthermore, the developed technologies will provide to prevent possible genetic erosion of Pistacia species. Keywords Tissue culture Á Ex situ conservation Á Genetic erosion Pistacia Á Pistachio Á Mastic tree Á Cryopreservation H. Akdemir Faculty of Science, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Gebze Technical University, 41400 Gebze, Kocaeli, Turkey e-mail: pinarakdemir@gmail.com A. Onay (&) Faculty of Science, Department of Biology, Dicle University, 21280 Diyarbakır, Turkey e-mail: ahmetonay45@gmail.com © Springer International Publishing AG 2017 M.R. Ahuja and S.M. Jain (eds.), Biodiversity and Conservation of Woody Plants, Sustainable Development and Biodiversity 17, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-66426-2_8 221