Elimination of Garlic common latent virus from garlic through meristem culture and thermotherapy

Virus infection on garlic (Allium sativum) can be accumulated through vegetative propagation and may cause yield losses. It was evidenced in this study that infection of GCLV on garlic seed cv 'Tawangmangu Baru' reached 100% based on detection using DIBA (Dotimmuno binding assay). This research was initiated to obtain an elimination method of GCLV from garlic seed bulbs of cv 'Tawangmangu Baru'. Tissue culture-based method was used in this research involving isolation of 1.0 mm meristem from micro shoots followed by thermotherapy at 25 °C, 28 °C, 31 °C, and heterogeneous temperatures for 4 wk. Virus indexing was conducted using RT-PCR on micro shoots that grown after treatment. The results showed that meristem culture and thermotherapy did not affect the growth of micro shoots based on assessment on the percentage of surviving explants, plant height, and the number of leaves. Infection of GCLV was still detected on micro shoots after thermotherapy, i.e. 64% to 91%. Virus infection on garlic cv 'Tawangmangu Baru' was not totally eliminated by meristem culture and thermotherapy. Factors affecting this result will be discussed in this paper as well as methodology improvement to produce virus-free garlic with high multiplication rate of explants.