Thermotherapy combined with plant tissue culture is one of the main methods for producing virus-free plant material of various fruit tree species. This thesis focuses on studies in ʻShiroʼ plum, apple, pear, and fig, where researchers applied combinations of thermotherapy, meristem culture, and molecular diagnostics to eliminate viruses such as apple chlorotic leaf spot virus (ACLSV), apple mosaic virus (ApMV), apple stem grooving virus (ASGV), fig leaf mottle-associated virus 1/ 2 (FLMaV-1/-2), and fig mosaic virus (FMV). In Shiro plum, a seven-day thermotherapy at 37 °C combined with microdissection of meristem resulted in 100% virus-free material. In apples and pears, a gradual temperature increase to 40 °C over 15 days enabled high survival, complete elimination of ApMV and partial elimination of ACLSV. In pears, researchers achieved the most effective outcome with 35-day thermotherapy and 1 mm meristem size, while dot-blot hybridisation proved more sensitive than ELISA for virus detection. In figs, both the culture of thermotherapy-exposed nodal explants and shoot tip culture led to regeneration of virus-free shoots, as confirmed by RT-PCR. Combining thermotherapy with tissue culture is an effective strategy for virus elimination in fruit trees, though its success strongly depends on virus type, host species, and treatment parameters.
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