tissue culture is soposed to produce plantlets free of virus or other problems. unlock hidden genetics, or even play around with genetics. it doesnt seem like it would be very hard to find the cause of fmv ie cells attacked, certain protines, etc and possibly isolate it thus creating a strain that is immune. however i donot have the knowladge of such things. right now i do tc as a hobbie but am looking on going to school for advance horticulter and genetics with a minor in biz managment sometime next year. if i get in the situation to where i can figure it out i will share what i have learned with every one along with cuttings :)

I like the set up doug, though o have the lights and stuff set up i dont think i will get the wife onboard with the greenhouse in the house.

There was a study using shoot tips in hopes that they were not yet infected with FMV as explained above.  Then they used some warming time to try to weaken any virus that might have been around.  They claimed success in eliminating FMV.

The tissue culture process in itself does NOT produce a FMV free plant.   There are two processes being confused here.  Or maybe not confused, but not understood to be both needed to get the desired cleaned up plant.   Thermotherapy and Micropropagation.

Thermotherapy is the process in which the plant is grown under warm conditions.  Most of the time about 100 degree days and 95 degree nights for a constant 3-4 weeks.   The viruses under this condition cannot migrate or make it to the meristem tip.   The tip is harvested and then the tip(s) are grown in vitro or micropropagated.  They can be brought up through that process to make another clone of the the mother plant.  I'm simplifying here....   often these plants need to be grown out and tested and taken through that process multiply times and tested using complex mean to make sure they are clean before going ahead with Tissue culture on a larger scale.  This in the case of a fig could take several months if not years.

Micropropagation/Tissue culture is just the process of taking smaller parts of the plants, not always the meristem, and multiplying them in a sterile culture.   If the starting material isn't cleaned up via Thermotherapy and verified to be clean beforehand using various testing, you will not have clean plants by micropropagation alone.

Many e-bay sellers claim that their plants are reproduced by tissue culture (micropropagated).  This may be true, but watch out for anyone saying that reproducing them by tissue culture has made them guaranteed to be clean.   It's very unlikely.  The only people that would have the time, patience, money to do all this work for any economical good (an economical good for figs has never been proven has it?)would maybe be a nursery that is supplying clean plants to a plantation somewhere and they have extra plants.....  but that's very unlikely.

I am not saying cleanning a fig of fmv has or hasnt been done but simply the means is there to do it with research and someone smarter than myself. i am going to be going back to school to try and get the smarts and education to take my hobby a little further. in theroy i dont see why it would not be possible to get a fmv resistant plant. the posibility is there. and i want to explore it. it may take years and i promis nothing other than i myself am willing to try.

ELIMINATION OF FIG MOSAIC FROM FIG SHOOT-TIP CULTURES BY THERMOTHERAPY

ISHS Acta Horticulturae 480: I International Symposium on Fig

To answer your question. Yes it's possible. Just not by using TC as the sole means of doing so.

virus by definition is RNA/DNA in a shell/capsule. once it penetrates into a cell, it will in corporate into the DNA of the host sell to produce whatever protein it was program to produce. if the cell is infected, it will have that RNA/DNA in it. when cell division occurs, the resulting cells will have the same sequence of the RNA/DNA that infected parent cell had.

now.. if you think about it.. new plant generated by infected cell will result in bunch of infected cells making up the plant.

thermotherapy is used to suppress the activity of the virus, and hopefully stop the protein production or denature the viral RNA/DNA/protein. it might work, it might not work. some virus are tougher to treat than others.

Here is a paper that maybe of interest

Another paper

I just wrote my contact at Foundation Plant Services to ask him if he had ever worked with figs or knew of anyone who had.

Jack:

That is some amazing research!  And only a few months old. Where did you find this? Thanks for posting. 

So my original statement is somewhat true, sure it's "possible" to clean them up with thermotherapy, but not by the average fig fanatic, however the likely hood of keeping the plant clean doesn't look very promising.

There is quite a bit in there that if read by some of the long time Fig 4 Fun Forum members here, would shatter some of their long time beliefs.  The view of some people that "all figs have the virus" is probably more likely to be true and the folks that believe their plants are clean, are probably not correct in that belief.   Even in symptom free samples, the virus is detected.

The other commonly stated belief that only Mites transmit the disease is disproved in the research.  Mealy bugs, Aphids, & mechanical transmission are all talked about as possible means of transmission.  

This topic is so talked about on this forum that I hope people take the time to read this.

Thanks again.

I am a former professor so have access to many published journals in various acedemic forums.  The microbiology books referenced apparently were scanned by a researcher looking at the subject we are debating here so quite handy! Enjoy.

I had a feeling you had to have some connections. Again, thanks for sharing with all of us.

I wrote in post #40 that I had contacted FPS.  He replied today:

Harvey, would you ask him what protocol they use?  Thanks.

He's not doing fig TC at FPS but Duarte Nursery is.  I'll send you a PM about that.

Do not want to hijack thread but can you TC a fruit, such as a watermelon or kiwi, if so where would you take the culture from, the vine, the melon rind, the seed ?????

you can culture seeds but if i were doing it i would start with node tissue on active growing vines, or tips.

Wow Thanks Jack for the links...

This discussion has renewed my interest in attempting to eradicate RBDV in some rare Rubus species via TC, and thermotherapy.   something of a plague in Rubus as apparently FMV is in figs.

Look at all the ones on this ARS GRIN database that are listed as infected accessions..
https://www.ars.usda.gov/SP2UserFiles/Place/53581500/catalogs/rubyellow.html

I've written a few times in this thread about Duarte Nursery and thought I'd give an update.  Today I was at Wolfskill, USDA's repository (NOT UCD! LOL, USDA curator John Preece even made the point of telling guests at the mulberry/prunus tasting to "stay out of the UCD side").

Anyways...Howard was there and I chatted with him about figs and how things were shaping up this year, etc. and talk came to the effects of FMV being worse in some figs than others.  He said that Duarte Nursery had obtained material from them and indexed the material for FMV, finding as many as 7 strains in some accessions.  I asked him if they were cleaning it up and he said yes, but that it wouldn't make any difference.  I stated it would probably help the trees become established faster and he agreed and also said that in some isolated locations the benefits could be longer-lasting.

Here's a link on doing tissue culture in your kitchen. I dont know if it would work on figs. It would be interesting to try it.

http://www.kitchenculturekit.com/StiffAffordablePTCforhobbyists.htm

Florida Hill Nursery sells  tissue-cultured fig varieties including "Black Mission" , and claims that they are virus free.

I bought 7 tiny "Black Mission" trees from them, and they a 10 times the size that they were last year.  Originally, they shipped trees having  skinny little stems were no fatter that the stems that support a normal-size fig leaf.  Today, these same seven trees are about two ft. tall, healthy, and show no symptoms of FMV.  I am particularly happy that I am growing  symptom-free "Black Mission". 

I believe they are selling "Black Mission"...."Brown Turkey"...."Green-Ischia"...."Celeste"...."LSU Purple"


Just some information.





Frank