Fifty Years of IOCV, 1957 to 2007: From Graft-Transmitted Citrus Agents to Viroids, Viruses and Endogenous Bacteria

Abstract

In November, 1957, the well-known Citrus Experiment Station (CES) of the University of California at Riverside, USA, celebrated its 50th anniversary. This was a good opportunity to hold the first international conference on so-called “virus” diseases of citrus, of which many had been studied in California, if not in Florida. Maladies such as Tristeza, Psorosis, Concave Gum and Blind Pocket, Crinkly leaf and Infectious variegation, Stubborn, Xyloporosis and Cachexia, Exocortis, and Vein enation had been shown to be transmissible by graft-inoculation. and were, for this reason, thought to be of viral nature, but not a single causal agent had yet been identified, mechanically transmitted, purified, or even seen in the electron microscope