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ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #329379
Title: The potential for citrus cryotherapy

Author
item Lee, Richard
item Volk, Gayle
item Hartung, John

Submitted to: Citrograph
Publication Type: Trade Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/1/2016
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Citrus collections of pathogen-free plants are needed for breeding, research, and distribution to the user community. The Citrus Research Board funded research project “Development of cryotherapy as an improved method of eliminating graft transmissible pathogens in Citrus” sought to use cryotherapy, a process by which pathogens are removed from plant shoot tips through the process of cryopreservation (survival after exposure to liquid nitrogen, LN), as an alternative to traditional pathogen elimination techniques. Over the duration of this project, a total of 424 citrus shoot tips were excised from infected plants, cryo-treated, recovered, and assessed for the presence of pathogens. Detection of pathogen was lower in plants grown from shoot tips that received the LN treatment compared to those that did not receive the LN treatment. Cryotherapy could be an effective method for pathogen elimination in citrus. Follow up work is necessary to confirm that plants remain pathogen free after longer growth durations. Pretreatments, or combined treatments of either cool temperature exposure (for viroids) or hot conditions (for viruses) may aid in the effectiveness of the cryotherapy procedure. Further experiments are necessary to test this hypothesis.

Technical Abstract: Citrus collections of pathogen-free plants are needed for breeding, research, and distribution to the user community. The Citrus Research Board funded research project “Development of cryotherapy as an improved method of eliminating graft transmissible pathogens in Citrus” sought to use cryotherapy, a process by which pathogens are removed from plant shoot tips through the process of cryopreservation (survival after exposure to liquid nitrogen, LN), as an alternative to traditional pathogen elimination techniques. Over the duration of this project, a total of 424 citrus shoot tips were excised from infected plants, cryo-treated, recovered, and assessed for the presence of pathogens. Detection of pathogen was lower in plants grown from shoot tips that received the LN treatment compared to those that did not receive the LN treatment. Cryotherapy could be an effective method for pathogen elimination in citrus. Follow up work is necessary to confirm that plants remain pathogen free after longer growth durations. Pretreatments, or combined treatments of either cool temperature exposure (for viroids) or hot conditions (for viruses) may aid in the effectiveness of the cryotherapy procedure. Further experiments are necessary to test this hypothesis.