Production of virus-free plants is crucial for vegetative propagation. Most plant viruses can be transmitted by vegetative propagation and after infection they cannot be controlled by using pesticides. Therefore, establishment of healthy mother plants is necessary to ensure the production of clean plant material. In the present study in vitro meristem culture combined with thermo-and cold-therapy treatments were assayed for elimination of important viruses and viroids in different apricot cultivars. The thermo-therapy approaches performed in this study included incubation of shoots at constant temperature of 28 and 30°C (1 and 2 days respectively) followed by temperature cycles of 32/38°C (four hours each) during 2 months. On the other hand, the cold-therapy treatment consisted in the incubation of shoots at constant temperature of 4°C during 2 months. Meristems were dissected from treated shoots and subcultured until full plant regeneration for evaluating the presence of virus and viroid by RT-PCR. The appearance and growth of meristems was observed after 1 month. Higher efficiency for virus elimination was obtained from treated apricot shoots at 4°C although viroid elimination was not possible

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