Articles
Virus elimination from asparagus seedlings by ascorbic acid and slow-freezing treatments
Article number
1301_27
Pages
173 – 178
Language
English
Abstract
Asparagus virus 1 (AV-1) and Asparagus virus 2 (AV-2) are major pathogenic viruses that cause the reduction of vigor and productivity of asparagus.
It is not easy to prepare the virus-free asparagus through in vitro culture for field production, thus we here tried to establish a new approach for virus elimination from asparagus by using ascorbic acid (AsA) treatment and slow-freezing cryotherapy.
AV-1 and AV-2 double infection in the asparagus spears were first confirmed by RT-PCR and then the shoot tips were excised from spears and cultured in vitro.
Viral infections in asparagus seedlings developed from the shoot tips were further examined and the doubly-infected seedlings were maintained and used for subsequent experiments.
For ascorbic acid treatment experiments, tissue fragments containing a lateral bud were excised from cultured seedlings and put on the medium supplemented with various concentrations of AsA. For slow-freezing treatment experiments, tissue fragments were excised at various sizes and then cooled to -40°C at -0.5°C min‑1. In the results, viral elimination was detected in seedlings by either ascorbic acid or slow-freezing treatments.
In ascorbic acid treatments, there were differences in elimination rate among asparagus cultivars, and in slow-freezing treatments the viral elimination rate did not depend on the excised tissue size.
It is not easy to prepare the virus-free asparagus through in vitro culture for field production, thus we here tried to establish a new approach for virus elimination from asparagus by using ascorbic acid (AsA) treatment and slow-freezing cryotherapy.
AV-1 and AV-2 double infection in the asparagus spears were first confirmed by RT-PCR and then the shoot tips were excised from spears and cultured in vitro.
Viral infections in asparagus seedlings developed from the shoot tips were further examined and the doubly-infected seedlings were maintained and used for subsequent experiments.
For ascorbic acid treatment experiments, tissue fragments containing a lateral bud were excised from cultured seedlings and put on the medium supplemented with various concentrations of AsA. For slow-freezing treatment experiments, tissue fragments were excised at various sizes and then cooled to -40°C at -0.5°C min‑1. In the results, viral elimination was detected in seedlings by either ascorbic acid or slow-freezing treatments.
In ascorbic acid treatments, there were differences in elimination rate among asparagus cultivars, and in slow-freezing treatments the viral elimination rate did not depend on the excised tissue size.
Publication
Authors
N. Matsuo, H. Shimura, T. Suzuki
Keywords
Asparagus officinalis, virus-free, shoot-tip culture, ascorbic acid, slow-freezing
Groups involved
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