ELIMINATION OF Cucumber Mozaic Virus (CMV) FROM A RANGE OF CHRYSANTHEMUM CULTIVARS THROUGH MERISTEM CULTURE FOLLOWING HEAT TREATMENT

Abstract

Cucumber Mosaic Virus (CMV) is one of pathogenic viruses that commonly found and has caused significant losses in many chrysanthemum growers in Indonesia. Efforts have been made to get healthy plant source through eliminating virus from infected plants and one of the promising methods was the combination of thermotherapy and meristem culture. The research was conducted to find out the effect of meristem culture following heat treatments on the existence of CMV in infected chrysanthemum plantlets. The experiment was carried out in the laboratory of tissue culture and virology at The Indonesian Ornamental Crops Research Institute (IOCRI) from August 2007 until June 2008. A complete factorial with ten replications was designed to accomplish the combination of two factors. The first factor was three chrysanthemum cultivars, namely Stroika, Dewi Sartika and White Fiji, while the second dealt with the durations of heat treatment i.e. one, two and three weeks. The results showed that plantlet survival decreased, yet improved plantlet performance by faster bud initiation with lengthened heat duration. The percentage of virus-free planlets also increased along with the duration of treatment and three weeks heat treatment followed by meristem culture effectively eliminated CMV from infected planlets.