The Role of Helen Purdy Beale in the Early Development of Plant Serology and Virology

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter reviews the role of Helen Purdy Beale, a pioneer in plant virology, in the early development of plant serology and virology. As a scientist, Beale contributed to the pioneering days of plant virology in the United States. Her insight and skillful laboratory technique brought immunology and serology to the plant virus community in the early 20 th century that her tools came into general use for diagnostics and experimentation. For her experiments, Beale prepared plant sap from healthy plants and Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV)-infected plants. Beale found that antiserum generated from TMV sap was different from healthy sap serum. Furthermore, when the healthy sap was repeatedly cross absorbed with TMV antiserum, interaction with normal sap was abolished. Beale's role in the discovery of the nature of TMV was profoundly affected by her career at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research and the influence of (and interactions with) some of the leading virologists including Louis O. Kunkel, Francis O. Holmes, and Wendell M. Stanley. Beale's research provided the definitive observations on the application of serology to study the properties of plant viruses.