Grafting Tomato Cultivars Resistant or Susceptible to Bacterial Wilt: Analysis of Resistance Mechanisms

Grafting experiments were carried out in order to understand tomato resistance mechanisms to Pseudomonas solanacearum . Resistant scions grafted on susceptible root-stocks wilted, indicating that vascular tissues of resistant cultivars were not tolerant to higher bacterial populations than susceptible ones. Colonization frequencies and bacterial densities observed in plant grafted on resistant or susceptiblle root-stocks showed that resistance was correlated to the limitation of bacterial spread in the lower part of the stem.