Studies on the nature of resistance in tomato plants to Verticillium albo-atrum

Extracts of healthy resistant and of healthy susceptible plants of tomato had the same effect on growth of Verticillium albo-atrum in vitro. Tracheal saps from resistant and from susceptible plants showed no difference in their effect on spore germination and mycelial growth of V. albo-atrum. Cuttings from resistant plants, inoculated with V. albo-atrum and fed with low concentrations of casamino acids, or glucose, at first wilted more than controls but soon recovered. Continuous treatment with dilute ethanol solutions for 2 weeks induced marked wilting in inoculated cuttings of resistant plants: treatment for shorter periods caused less severe symptoms, from which cuttings recovered slowly. Metabolic inhibitors did not break resistance of cuttings, but the pathogen survived longer in cuttings treated with sodium diethyldithiocarbamate, salicylaldoxime or 8-hydroxyquinoline than in controls. When one end of segments of stems of resistant plants was inoculated with the pathogen, and 48 h later the uninoculated end was placed near a colony of V. albo-atrum on agar, growth of the fungus colony towards the stem segment was sometimes inhibited. There was no such inhibition when segments from susceptible plants were used. Both tracheal sap and diffusates from segments of inoculated resistant plants supported less growth of germ tubes of V. albo-atrum than sap and diffusates from uninoculated plants. These differences were not obtained with the susceptible variety and production of fungitoxic substances in resistant plants after infection is inferred.