Elimination of Phytoplasmas in Rubus Mother Plants by Tissue Culture Coupled with Heat Therapy

Abstract

Phytoplasmas are plant-pathogenic bacteria that cause a disease in Rubus species which is referred to as Rubus stunt. As phytoplasmas can be spread by vegetative propagation and latency periods of Rubus stunt can be up to one year, the use of pathogen-free Rubus propagation material in plant nurseries is important in order to stop the spread of this disease. Even though heat therapy has been commonly applied against viruses in many plants, its potential for phytoplasma eradication has been much less explored. Here, the efficacy of heat therapy with subsequent tissue culture to eliminate phytoplasmas from infected raspberry and blackberry plants is evaluated. Heat therapy was performed on 25 phytoplasma-infected raspberry and 33 infected blackberry plants, out of which 100 raspberry and 65 blackberry plants were regenerated via subsequent tissue culture. All plants were negative for the presence of phytoplasma DNA by qPCR at the end of cultivation periods of 481 to 565 days for the treated raspberry plants and 231 to 337 days for the treated blackberry plants. These results show the suitability of heat therapy combined with tissue culture as a routine tool to ensure the presence of phytoplasma-free Rubus mother plants in nurseries.

Production of diseases - free plant materials of grapevine from phytoplasma in vitro

“…According to the obtained results and reports from other authors [10,17,18], the protocol based on tissue culture in combination with heat treatment followed by micropropagation of healthy plants seems to be the most practical. This approach can become a routine method of producing grape young plants free of the phytoplasma associated with blackening of grapevine wood Bois noir, as part of the planting material and mother planting certification programs.…”

Influences of Jujube Witches’ Broom (JWB) Phytoplasma Infection and Oxytetracycline Hydrochloride Treatment on the Gene Expression Profiling in Jujube

“…The jujube industry is greatly threatened by the JWB disease. In order to cope with this disease, many methods were applied [ 17 , 22 ], and the tetracycline derivatives treatments were confirmed to be quite effective [ 17 , 23 ]. In this study, we reported the chemotherapy effects of OTC-HCl in recovering more than 86% of the mild JWB-diseased trees in the field.…”

“…For the prevention and control of JWB, a variety of measures have been taken by scientists and farmers, such as resistant rootstock and variety breeding, in addition to physical-, chemical-, biological- and comprehensive controls [ 17 , 22 ]. Among them, antibiotics treatments, especially tetracycline derivatives treatments, have been reported to be quite effective in recovering trees from phytoplasma infection [ 17 , 23 ].…”

Phytoplasmas, the Fast Spreading Vector Borne Pathogens of Flower Crops: Indian Scenario

“…In grapevine hot water treatment of scions at 50 0 C for 40 minutes was found effective in reducing phytoplasmal load. Such strategies can be adopted in woody ornamentals (Linck et al, 2019).…”