Semester

Summer

Date of Graduation

2005

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MS

College

Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design

Department

Applied and Environmental Biology

Committee Chair

William L. MacDonald.

Abstract

Transfection is an alternative laboratory method of hypovirus transmission that can be used to create hypovirulent strains. Results from a preliminary study at West Virginia University in 1998-99 indicated that recovery of hypovirulent isolates was similar between CHV1-infected anastomosed and transfected isolates. The objective of this research was to compare the two hypovirus acquisition methods in three experiments. The first study confirmed the performance of anastomosed and transfected isolates tested in a 1998-99 field study. In addition to the isolates previously evaluated, a third set of isolates containing CHV3-County Line was included. The size of cankers and the reisolation of V and HV isolates were evaluated. The second study evaluated stroma production and hypovirus transmission to conidia. The third study involved laboratory tests to evaluate hypovirus transmission to different vegetative incompatible isolates of C. parasitica via anastomosis. The field study site, located in the Monongahela National Forest, utilized 96 American chestnut trees. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).

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