Oxygen and carbon dioxide treatment to break potato tuber dormancy for reliable detection of potato virus Y (PVY) by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)

Summary Dormant tubers of the potato cv. Bintje were treated for 7 or 14 days in an atmosphere enriched to either 40% O₂ plus 1% CO₂, or 40% O₂ plus 20% CO₂, or they were stored in closed plastic bags for identical periods. Rindite-treated and untreated tubers served as references. Treatment with 40% O₂ plus 20% CO₂ for 7 days was nearly as efficient as rindite for inducing sprouting. Both the O₂ plus CO₂ treatments, for 7 and 14 days, considerably increased virus concentration in tubers and had an effect similar to that of rindite 40 days after treatment, but the plastic bag treatment was not as efficient. It is concluded that O₂ plus CO₂ enriched atmospheres could be used for breaking tuber dormancy in order to detect reliably PVY in tuber extracts.