Thermotherapy of cloves for in-vitro mericlone production for healthy and sustainable management of garlic (Allium sativum L) germplasm

Abstract

Garlic is a second most important crop of the genus Allium, known for its traditional medicinal uses. In spite of having medicinal prosperities, it gets infected by several viruses called Garlic Viral Complex (GVC). The garlic viral complex severely affects bulb yield of garlic, due to accumulation of virus load year after year from asexual propagule cloves. Hence we attempted an experiment to eliminate garlic viral complex through thermotherapy in combination with meristem culture. The viruses were eliminated from infected garlic bulb with the treatment at 37°C for 90 days followed by meristem culture could eliminate the Garlic Common Latent Virus, Onion Yellow Dwarf Virus and Allexiviruses. In this study, we confirmed that the combination of thermotherapy and meristem culture technique protocol have wider prospects for virus elimination in garlic.