ISHS Acta Horticulturae 110: V International Symposium on Virus diseases of Ornamental Plants
AMANTADINE SUPPLEMENTED TISSUE CULTURE MEDIUM: A METHOD FOR OBTAINING CHRYSANTHEMUMS FREE OF CHRYSANTHEMUM STUNT VIROID |
| Authors: | R.K. Horst, D. Cohen |
| Abstract:
The control of viroids, the smallest known micro-organisms that cause disease in plants, consists primarily of the identification and eradication of infected plants. Vegetatively propagated crops such as chrysanthemums are particularly vulnerable to viroids and many valuable vegetatively propagated cultivars can be lost if found to be completely infected with viroids. Heat therapy and meristem shoot tip culture have frequently been tried to eradicate viroids but with little success. Chemicals such as virazol, phosphonoacetic acid and amantadine have been reported to provide a means of freeing plant and animal cells of viruses. These chemicals were tested on chrysanthemum stunt infected chrysanthemum shoot apices in tissue culture. Amantadine (50–100 mg/L) incorporated into a tissue culture medium for chrysanthemums (basic Murashige-Skoog Salt Medium supplemented with 100 mg/L Minositol, 0.4 mg/L thiamine, 30 g/L sucrose, 0.5 mg/L kinetin and 1.0 mg/L indolebutryic acid) was effective in obtaining chrysanthemum plantlets free of chrysanthemum stunt viroid (CSV). Shoot apex tissues (0.3 to 1.0 mm in size) were placed on this medium and allowed to differentiate into plantlets which were then planted into pots in the greenhouse. Leaf samples were removed and assayed for CSV with polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis assays and with bioassays on chrysanthemum cultivar Bonnie Jean. About 10% of these plants were found to be free of CSV; whereas, no plants transplanted from non-supplemented amantadine medium were found to be free of CSV. | |
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