Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato in Relation to Possible.pdfVIP

Y. BASHAN* , Y. OKON and Y. HENI S Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Faculty Agriculture, P.O. Box 12, Rehovot 76100, Israel Accepted: 8 January 1985 ABSTRACT The role of morphological characteristics of tomato leaves in the infection process of the pathogen syringae pv. tomato was studied in 15 cultivars of varying susceptibility. Natural openings such as broken trichomes and cuticular cracks were counted. It was found that susceptibility increased in to the number of these potential penetration sites. However, their role is probably limited because eve highly resistant cultivars there are enough natural openings to enable successful bacterial penetration. Key words: Bacterial speck of tomato, Lycopersicon esculentum, phytopathogenic bacteria, plant Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato, tomato. INTRODUCTION The role of mechanical barriers in prevention of bacterial invasion into leaf been the subject of controversy (Crafts and, Foy, 1962; Goodman, Kiraly and 1967; Baker, 1971; Van den Ende and Linskens, 1974). It is generally agree that openings of the plant such as stomata, nectaries, hydathodes, lenticels and glandular hairs are the main sites of entry for many species of phytopathogenic (Rolfs, 1915; Lewis and Goodman, 1965; Goodman et al., 1967;Burki, 1972; 1976). Although the role of morphological barriers in resistance to infection was as early as 1921 (MacLean, 1921; Hildebrand, 1937), studies dealing with diseased plants have focused on physiological events such as phenol oxidatio accumulation of phytoalexins (Fric, 1976; Kuc, 1976). Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (PST), is the causal agent of bacterial speck i of to