Electrophoretic protein and enzyme patterns and antigenic structure in Verticillium dahliae and V. albo-atrum

The acrylamide gel electrophoretic patterns of esterases and phosphatases are not helpful in the identification ofVerticillium dahliae andV. albo-atrum. Protein profiles of wild-type isolates of the two species show bands characteristic to each species. For the genus, nine characteristic bands were detected; these remained in natural variants, but in ultraviolet variants only six of them persisted. Of the three bands characteristic ofV. dahliae, only one persisted in natural and in ultraviolet variants.V. albo-atrum showed two characteristic bands. Immunoelectrophoretic analysis reveals the existence of greater intra-specific affinities than at the inter-specific level. Variants from one isolate have immunoelectrophoretic constituents similar to those of the parent and can be identified employing these criteria. Both acrylamide gel electrophoresis and immunoserology, however, affirm the close genetic relationship of the two form-species.