LE3 .A278 2015

2015

Evans, Rodger

Acadia University

Bachelor of Science

Honours

Biology

Biology

Strawberry plants in Nova Scotia have been confirmed to host a virus complex consisting of strawberry mild yellow edge virus (SMYEV) and strawberry mottle virus (SMoV). In February 2012 plants exported from Nova Scotian nurseries hosting this virus complex died after arriving in Florida. To prevent the further spread of this disease complex, it is critical that fields harboring the complex are detected early. Current detection methods include: ELISA, RT-PCR, and grafting. A cost effective and time efficient method to replace or supplement current detection methods would be beneficial as the laboratory practices are expensive, limiting the number of plants that can be sampled, and grafting is a long process. Both Fvar and Fv/Fm chlorophyll fluorescence were measured over a three month period on plants isolated from two fields; one of which was determined to host the disease complex, and the other was determined to be free of the complex on the basis of laboratory studies conducted on a small sub-sample of plants from each field. Plants isolated from the “infected” versus “uninfected” fields showed clear and consistent differences in both Fvar and Fv/Fm over the entire experimental period suggesting that chlorophyll fluorescence has potential as a screening tool to detect the presence of the viral complex. Further studies that examine chlorophyll fluorescence in individual plants confirmed to host the viral complex, SMYEV only, SMoV only or neither virus are justified.

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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:1264