INTRODUCTORY REMARKS TO THE SESSION ‘QUARANTINE THERAPY AND VIRUS-TESTED MATERIAL’

The general topic that will be addressed in this session is the incorporation of micropropagation techniques as a component of various strategies used for the management and control of viral pathogens.
Since the very first unsuccessful attempts by Haberlandt in 1902 to micropropagate plants, much progress has been made.
The turning point came around 1939 when Nobecourt and Gautheret in France, and White in the USA independently reported indefinite culture of plant callus tissue in a synthetic medium (Hartmann and Kester, 1975).

Considerable progress has been made since then and in vitro culture or micropropagation of plant germplasm now has many applications including; rapid mass propagation of plants, in vitro bio-assay for infection status, more reliable testing of pathogens, easier analysis and characterization of plant pathogens, and the production of virus-free plants using techniques such as meristem culture and in vitro chemotherapy.

Many of these topics will be covered in the papers presented in this session with titles ranging from ‘Improved detection of viruses and phytoplasmas in fruit tree tissue cultures’, to ‘Alternate methods to deliver antiviral compounds for establishing virus-free trees’.