Phytoplasma elimination from perennial horticultural crops

The presence of phytoplasmas is a major threat for plant survival and production, especially in perennial crop species. The fact that infected plants cannot be healed emphasizes the importance of strategies for their elimination. Several methods were exploited and applied to verify their disappearance from plant tissues in vivo, such as thermotherapy by hot water or hot air of propagation material and chemotherapy of both propagation material and plants in the field. Numerous in vitro methods were also tested from meristem tip culture to chemotherapy with antibiotics or other antimicrobial molecules as well as cryotherapy that showed some level of phytoplasma elimination. The most promising approach to plant sanitation from phytoplasma infection still appears to be the combination of in vitro thermotherapy and shoot-tip culture.