Heat treatment and meristem culture for the production of virus-free plant material

Abstract

To obtain virus-free material from plant species or cultivars which are vegetatively propagated and totally infected with virus, three methods were developed. Heat treatment (with hot water or hot air) resulting in an inactivation or an inhibition of the multiplication of the virus has been successful in several cases (a.o. sugar-cane, fruit trees). However, there are viruses which are not inactivated by heat; to obtain virus-free material from plants infected with such viruses the small tip meristems are isolated and cultivated on nutrient media because in several cases the tip meristem of systemically infected plants appeared to be virus-free. The possibilities of this method and the difficulties in composing suitable nutrient media for further shoot development and rooting are treated in detail. Because the tip meristem is very small (0.1 mm) the percentage of growing meristems is not always satisfactory. To increase this percentage a combination of heat treatment and meristem culture has been applied. This gives the possibility of using somewhat larger stem tips (1 mm) which grow better on the nutrient media and may still be virus-free. It always remains necessary to test the treated material for presence of virus. A list is given of crop plants from which virus-free stocks are obtained in The Netherlands and other countries.