Plant Viruses in Tissue Culture

Abstract

The chapter discusses on the plant viruses in the tissue culture. The tissue culture has played an ever-increasing role in practically every field of experimental biology. By means of this technique not only can the tissues of higher plants be grown in vitro , but the chemical and physical conditions of growth can be controlled at the same time in a manner not possible with the intact plant. Plant tissue culture has greatly enlarged the scope of investigations into obligate plant pathogens, particularly the interaction of host and parasite at the cellular level. Many kinds of diseased tissues, virus tumors, crown galls, insect galls, as well as genetic and X-ray-induced tumors, have been grown on suitable media. These tissues usually differ in their nutritional requirements and their growth patterns. Even parts from various plant groups— namely, algae, bryophytes, pteriodophytes, gymnosperms, monocotyledons, and dicotyledons, have been grown in culture. There is a need for further study of the fundamental and applied aspects of the metabolic imbalance in virus-affected host cells, the expression of variable symptoms in response to viral infection, and the possibility of maintaining type culture collection of plant viruses. In addition, studies of some plant viruses in insect-tissue culture could well be pursued for a better understanding of their growth and multiplication in a different form of host cell. The effect of metabolites and their analogs on plant viruses in plant tissue culture is an interesting field of study and should give useful information on the synthesis of infectious viral nucleic acid as well as the inhibition of these entities.