Electron microscopy of susceptible and resistant near-isogenic (sr6/Sr6) lines of wheat infected by Puccinia graminis tritici. III. Ultrastructure of incompatible interact

Abstract

The interaction between avirulent wheat stem rust and wheat mesophyll cells containing the temperature-sensitive Sr6 gene for stem rust resistance was studied by electron microscopy. Mesophyll cells that were invaded at 26 °C (conditioning compatibility) did not develop any signs of incompatibility after they were transferred to 19 °C, at which temperature incompatibility is normally expressed. In host tissue that appeared to be invaded after the change from 26 to 19 °C, the early ultrastructural symptoms of incompatibility were a more electron-dense and often perforated invaginated host plasmalemma, disruptions of the noninvaginated host plasmalemma, vacuolation of the cytoplasm, and accumulations of electron-dense material along the membranes of the vacuoles. At later stages in the development of incompatible interactions, the electron-dense accumulations along the vacuole membranes increased in size and occurred along chloroplast and mitochondrial membranes. Eventually, the entire protoplasts were electron dense and collapsed. In haustoria and haustorial mother cells, incompatibility was usually expressed by a uniform increase in electron density of the cytoplasm. In the Sr6/P6 interaction at 19 °C, host cell necrosis was not always accompanied by fungal necrosis or vice versa. In Sr5/P5 interactions, which were examined for comparison, the intracellular symptoms of incompatibility were similar to those of the Sr6/P6 interactions.