A Guide to Grafting for Cotton (Gossypium Hirsutum L.) Virus Transmission and the Successful Transmission of Cotton Leaf Roll Dwarf Virus

A new virus in cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) required the need to graft plants to evaluate resistance. In searching the literature, several studies reported grafting, however the details surrounding the types of grafts, age, and acclimation environment are not described in detail. A graft is the union of rootstock and scion requiring good cambial tissue contact to be successful. Therefore, several different graft types, and the need for humidity was investigated. Initially, thirty plants were grown in the greenhouse. The first set of grafts were performed on fifteen plants between two graft types (T-graft and bottle shoot) and the need to be bagged for cambial humidity. The second set of fifteen were used to test the wedge, saddle-graft, whip-and-tongue, bottle shoot, and approach grafts on three plants each. The T-graft was chosen as the best for success as it provided the highest cambial contact. A set of twenty plants were grown to serve as rootstock for cotton leafroll dwarf virus (CLRDV) transmission. Two different infected CLRDV plants served as the scion for the virus which were grafted using the T-graft. Three leaves below the graft node were used to test for the virus using PCR. Fourteen of 20 grafts had successful transmission of CLRDV, regardless of graft success.