THE EFFECT OF LEAF WATER BALANCE ON THE SUSCEPTIBILITY OF FRENCH BEAN TO TOBACCO NECROSIS VIRUS

Abstract

French beans were germinated under constant temperature, relative humidity, and day period, and were transferred to Hoagland's culture solution. Variations of the preinoculation treatment were begun at an age of 10 days for a period of 24 h. Treatments were selected which would induce turgor changes in the primary leaves.It was observed that susceptibility to tobacco necrosis virus infection was increased by preinoculation conditions of continuous darkness, high relative humidity, and low suction tension of the culture solution. Susceptibility was lowered by preinoculation conditions of continuous light, low relative humidity, and high suction tension of the culture solution.Diffusion pressure deficit, osmotic pressure, and turgor pressure measurements were made with the primary leaves at time of inoculation. Considerable agreement was noted between turgor changes and susceptibility.Preinoculation treatments such as darkening will alter susceptibility through changes in turgor pressure. It is suggested that there may be a direct effect of leaf turgor on the number of infectible sites.