Researchers examine virus loads in garlic

Although it is used to ‘ward off evil spirits’, garlic’s supernatural powers do not prevent it from existing injured by multiples virus.

According to John Thomas, associate virologist at the University of Queensland (QU), it is difficult to obtain virus-free garlic anywhere in the world. “There can be as many as 10 or 12 viruses in infected plants, and most garlic plants contain at least six viruses,” Thomas said. “All commercial garlic contains viruses, which do not appear to affect flavor or nutrition, but do have an effect on crop yield.”

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Under the guidance of Thomas, Qatar University doctoral student in plant virology Sari Noroletta developed a study with the goal of creating reliable tests for detecting viruses and investigating the cause of this. the plants Upper and lower garlic share the same viral profile.

“Garlic is a vegetatively propagated crop, and once infected, all offspring are infected,” Thomas said. “It is also possible that the crop collects more viruses in the field, but does not lose any plants.”

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In previous work funded by the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research, he said, researchers have improved the performance of light bulbs among virus-infected garlic crops.

“By nurturing choices across generations, Dr. Stephen Harper [autor de um dos estudos] I was receiving three times the income of the best teams, Thomas said. “However, Ms. Noroletta shows that elite picks of garlic are still infected with the complement virus and we don’t know why this happened.”

A scientist has mapped the entire genomes of viruses found in garlic

Nurulita also investigated viral concentrations using next-generation sequencing and mapped genome full of viruses. “I did not find significant differences in virus levels and could not identify a clear difference between two different elite and underperforming garlic seed lines.”

Thomas said the team has also tried to deploy tissue culture to produce virus-free garlic, but to no avail. “We think it might be genetic silencing that occurs naturally in the plant,” he said. “It may depend on which virus takes advantage of a particular blackhead, or the order in which it is infected. There are a lot of different possibilities and it’s not a simple matter. But let’s take a look at absolute virus levels to see if we can determine if gene silencing is responsible.”

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