Biosynthesis of some Amino-Acids from Sucrose by Germinating Uredospores of Wheat Stem Rust, Race 15B

Abstract

RUST development may depend on the availability of specific nutrients, such as certain amino-acids, which are supplied by the susceptible, but not by the resistant, host plant1. Demonstrations of nutritional requirements by the classical deletion procedure necessitate growing the organism on a chemically defined medium. Although some plant rusts have been grown on artificial media2, little is known about their nutritional requirements. A method permitting the determination of at least some of these requirements without the use of chemically defined diets would be useful. An indirect procedure which utilized metabolites labelled with carbon-14 when applied to the mouse3 and blowfly4 gave results for amino-acid requirements which agreed with the classical deletion procedure. The present report gives results of the application of this indirect method to germinating uredospores of Puccinia graminis tritici, race 15B.