THE APPLICATION OF PLANT PATHOLOGICAL TECHNIQUES IN PLANT QUARANTINE PATHOLOGY

S.W. Braverman
The introduction of varieties with superior horticultural and agronomic characteristics and disease and insect resistance for crop improvement programmes is world-wide. Many countries, however, impose restrictions on the importation of plant material to protect their crops from foreign pests and diseases. Yet, to withhold valuable germplasm from reaching crop improvement programmes may pose a threat to a continued agricultural expansion.

East Africa has maintained a rigid system of plant control restrictions for the past 40 years. Imports are initially processed at the East African Plant Quarantine Station and if certified as free from plant pests and diseases are made available to East African agriculture. Often, plant material cannot be certified as free from insects, nematodes and diseases, and so is not available, although it might contain an outstanding characteristic most desirable in a crop improvement programme. For example, the distribution of a soybean line may be restricted completely since the variety failed to pass "the pathogen detection test". Similarly, the release of asparagus, sugarcane and potato varieties is curtailed if varieties index positively for viruses.

In seeds, the endosperm which surrounds the embryo and in banana suckers, asparagus crowns, vegetative material (rooted in a sterile medium), and sugarcane setts, endosperm and vegetative tissue may harbour plant pests, systemic fungi and bacteria, and viruses. If an embryo and a growing point (lateral or apical meristem) were devoid of all surrounding tissue, the phytosanitation of plant material would, conceivably, be markedly improved.

This paper presents techniques designed to improve the phytosanitation of introductions of soybean, asparagus, and sugarcane.

Braverman, S.W. (1975). THE APPLICATION OF PLANT PATHOLOGICAL TECHNIQUES IN PLANT QUARANTINE PATHOLOGY. Acta Hortic. 49, 299-302
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.1975.49.39
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1975.49.39

Acta Horticulturae