ISHS Acta Horticulturae 110: V International Symposium on Virus diseases of Ornamental Plants
DIAGNOSIS OF VIRUSES IN ORNAMENTAL PLANTS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO SEROLOGICAL METHODS |
| Author: | E. Luisoni |
| Abstract:
The approach to diagnosis of viruses in ornamental plants, as in the plants in general, is not the same for research diagnosis and for routine indexing. The scope of the first is to characterize any virus, perhaps not yet described, but interesting for some reason. The scope of routine indexing is to check if one or more pre-determined viruses are present in a relatively great number of samples. After a brief survey of all methods, the more recently developed serological techniques for routine indexing will be discussed in more detail. Grafting on woody indicator plants is, among ornamentals, mainly limited to virus or virus-like diseases of Rosaceae, for which Shirofugen flowering cherry, peach 'GF 305' and some rose varieties are used. Sap inoculation on herbaceous test plants, widely used in research diagnosis, tends to be limited in indexing due to the time and space necessary. However it is used in some cases for its high sensitivity, or when sera are not available, or when one species can be used to screen for many viruses affecting the crop in question (e. g. inoculation of carnation sap on Chenopodium amaranticolor). A well known improvement of the system, sometime possible, is the use of detached leaves instead of whole plants. Electron microscopy is used directly (e. g. gladiolus obtained from meristem culture were routinely checked with this method) or as immune electron microscopy. The latter, particularly the "Derrick" and the "clumping" systems, being more sensitive, can be used on pooled samples, thus saving time and expense. A very recent improvement is the use of protein A, which can be used as a ligand between the surface of the grid and the antibody in the "Derrick" system. Another possibility is to increase the number of | |
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