Table Of ContentSpecificity
in Plant Diseases
NATO ADVANCED STUDY INSTITUTES SERIES
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Specificity
in Plant Diseases
Edited by
R. K. S. Wood, F. R. S.
Imperial College of Science and Technology
London, England
and
A. Graniti
University of Bari
Bari, Italy
PLENUM PRESS. NEW YORK AND LONDON
Published in cooperation with NATO Scientific Affairs Division
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
NATO Advanced Study Institute on Specificity in Plant Diseases, AIghero, Sardinia,
1975.
Specificity in plant diseases.
(NATO advanced study institutes series: Series A, Life sciences; v. 10)
"Lectures presented at the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Specificity in Plant
Diseases, held in Porto Conte, nr. AIghero (Sardinia), Italy, May 4-17,1975."
1. Plant diseases-Congresses. 2. Host-parasite relationships-Congresses. I. Wood,
R. K. S. II. Graniti, A. III. Title. IV. Series. [DNLM: 1. Plant diseases-Congresses.
SB731 Nlls 1975)
SB731.N28 1975 581.2'32 76-10644
ISBN-13: 978-1-4684-2771-4 e-ISBN-13: 978-1-4684-2769-1
DOl: 10.1007/978-1-4684-2769-1
Lectures presented at the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Specificity
in Plant Diseases, held in Porto Conte, nr. Alghero (Sardinia), Italy,
May 4-17, 1975
© 1976 Plenum Press, New York
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1976
A Division of Plenum Publishing Corporation
227 West 17th Street, New York, N.Y. 10011
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming,
recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher
Preface
A NATO Advanced Study Institute on "Phytotoxins in Plant
Diseases" was held in Pugnochiuso (Italy) in June 1970. It was
concerned mainly with the chemistry and mode of action of substances
toxic to higher plants which are produced by pathogenic bacteria
and fungi. The role of such substances in specificity was consider
ed but largely in relation to host-specific toxins.
In 1973, in light of the success of the 1970 Institute, we
decided to plan for another in 1975 and after discussion with col
leagues during the Second International Congress of Plant Pathology,
we selected "Specificity in Plant Diseases" as the theme for the
1975 Institute.
Our chief reasons for the choice were that specificity is un
doubtedly the dominant problem in plant pathology and that with the
rapid increase during the last decade or so in the diversity and
sophistication of biochemical techniques, we should now expect during
the next few years much more research on specificity and major ad
vances in our understanding of the mechanisms that control it. It
seemed to us that a residential meeting with the advantages and
status of a NATO Advanced Study Institute would do much to stimulate
interest and research in this most important field. The theme also
had the merit of continuity with that of the 1970 Institute. Our
application to the Scientific Affairs Division of NATO for a grant
to cover most of the costs of the meeting was successful and we
decided that it should be held at Porto Conte nr. Alghero (Sardinia),
Italy on 4 - 17 May 1975.
At first our programme included viruses as plant pathogens on
the same scale as bacteria and fungi but we soon decided that to do
so would unduly widen the scope of the meeting. Instead we aimed
to include no more than one lecture which would review specificity
in plant diseases caused by viruses. Unfortunately, this plan for
one lecture had to be abandoned at a late date. We were, however,
fortunate in that early in our planning Dr. R.C. Hughes accepted
v
PREFACE
our invitation to lecture on animal membranes as recognition sites,
and then Professor H.F. Linskens agreed to survey specific inter
actions in higher plants. The other lectures which were the bulk
of the programme dealt with almost every aspect of specificity of
interactions between pathogenic bacteria and fungi and higher plants
and were given by distinguished workers in this field. We are parti
cularly indebted to all lecturers for their contributions upon which
the many meetings and discussions were based and which comprise the
main part of this book. We were also very grateful to those whom we
were unable to include as main lecturers but who accepted our in
vitation to be both Chairmen of meetings and Discussion Leaders,
and who later summarized the discussions and short papers which
followed each main lecture; these summaries are also in this book.
The organization and administration of an Advanced study
Institute would be impossible without the help of innumerable coll
eagues and assistants. We thank each of them and we regret that we
can name only a few. First and foremost we thank Dr. R.D. Durbin
who helped us for many months before the Institute and then during
the meetings. We thank Professor A. Ciccarone and Professor M. Shaw
who served with Dr. Durbin on our Advisory Committee and gave us
much useful advice on the programme and scientific content of the
meeting. We are especially indebted to Mrs. June Cheston for her
secretarial work before the start of the Institute, for her editorial
work with manuscripts and above all for preparing the final type
scripts from which this book was copied. We also thank Dr. A.
Bottalico and Dr. L. Sparapano, University of Bari, for their help
in the organization and running of the Institute, and Professor
F. Marras, University of Sassari, for his advice on and help with
the local arrangements. We are grateful to Mrs. Teresa Jardella
and Miss Maria Palumbo for their excellent secretarial work during
the meetings.
The Institute was helped financially or in other ways by the
Ministry of Agriculture, Rome, Italy; Consiglio Nazionale delle
Richerche, Rome, Italy; Regione Sarda, Cagliari, Italy; University
of Sassari, Italy; and the National Science Foundation, Washington,
U.S.A.; we thank each for their contributions.
Finally, and on behalf of all those who participated in the
Institute we thank most warmly the Scientific Affairs Division of
NATO for its sponsorship of the Institute and for the generous
financial grant which met a large part of the expenses of partici
pants; and we are particularly grateful to Dr. T. Kester of the
Scientific Affairs Division for his interest and his help and advice
in organizing the Institute.
A.G.
December 1975 R.K.S.W.
Contents
Opening Address . . . 1
Antonio Ciccarone
The Phenomenon of Specificity in Plant Disease 15
Percy W. Brian
(E. W. B. Ward, Chairman and Discussion Leader)
Tissue and Organ Specificity in Plant Diseases 27
Antonio Graniti
(W. C. Snyder, Chairman and Discussion Leader)
Genetics of Host-Parasite Interactions 45
Roy Johnson
(A. H. Ellingboe, Chairman and Discussion Leader)
Gene Functions in Host-Parasite Systems . . . . 65
Peter R. Day
(C. Person, Chairman and Discussion Leader)
Cell Surface Membranes of Animal Cells as the Sites
of Recognition of Infectious Agents and
Other Substances . . • • • • . . . • • 77
Colin Hughes
(P. Hanchey, Chairman and Discussion Leader)
Cell Surfaces and the Biochemistry of varietal
Specific Pathogenesis . • • . 103
Peter Albersheim
(R. P. Scheffer, Chairman and Discussion Leader)
Models of Interaction between Higher Plants and
Bacteria 109
Klaus Rudolph
(A. Novacky, Chairman and Discussion Leader)
vii
viii CONTENTS
Reactions of Cytoplasm and Organelles in Relation
to Host-Parasite Specificity • • • • • 131
william R. Bushnell
(J. L. Gay, Chairman and Discussion Leader)
Specific Interactions Involving Hormonal and
Other Changes 151
J. M. Daly
(H. M. Dekhuijzen, Chairman and Discussion Leader)
Effects of Structure of Active Compounds on
Biological Activity and Specificity 169
Daniel H. Rich
(D. H. Rich, Chairman and Discussion Leader)
Evidence for Direct Involvement of Nucleic Acids
in Host-Parasite Specificity • • • • 185
Roland Rohringer
(G. Wolf, Chairman and Discussion Leader)
Protein Specificity in Plant Disease Development:
Protein Sharing between Host and Parasite 199
James E. Devay
(R. Staples, Chairman and Discussion Leader)
The Role of Phytotoxins in Specificity .•• . 217
Harry Wheeler
(5. S. Patil, Chairman and Discussion Leader)
Role of Preformed Factors in Specificity 237
Fritz Schonbeck
(R. D. Durbin, Chairman and Discussion Leader)
Phytoalexins and the Specificity of Plant-Parasite
Interaction . . . • • . . • 253
Joseph Kuc
(N. T. Keen, Chairman and Discussion Leader)
Induction of Hypersensitive Responses to
. . . .'.
Fungal Pathogens 273
Antje Kaars Sijpesteijn
(D. D. Clarke, Chairman and Discussion Leader)
Induction and Suppression of the Hypersensitive
Reaction Caused by Phytopathogenic Bacteria:
Specific and Nonspecific Components • • 289
Luis Sequeira
(A. Novacky, Chairman and Discussion Leader)
CONTENTS ix
Specific Interactions in Higher Plants 311
Hans F. Linskens
(H. Kern, Chairman and Discussion Leader)
Specificity - An Assessment 327
Ronald K. S. Wood
Participants 339
Subj ect Index • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •. 345
OPENING ADDRESS
ANTONIO CICCARONE
Istituto di Patologia vegetale dell' Universita
Bari~ Italy
To open this Institute is not an easy task, if the introduct
ion is not limited to a hearty welcome, but the idea of the organ
izers, whom I thank most sincerely for the honour conferred upon me,
is that my talk has some technical content. They also suggested
that I speak generally on specificity, speciation and taxonomy.
This is rather hard for a plant pathologist such as I am,so I hope
you will listen sympathetically to a somewhat indisciplined dis
course in mycological plant pathology, and a somewhat careful ap
proach to the main theme of the Institute.
In my talk I shall refer only briefly to bacteria of which I
know all too little. The criteria for identifying and recognizing
bacterial species are different from those used for the eucaryotes.
As Savile (43) comments, in simple organisms, biochemistry is more
important than morphology.
Among specialized fungi there are, as is well known, some which
are obligate parasites such as powdery mildews and rusts, some which
Van der Plank (52) calls "near obligate" such as Phytophthora in
festans and non-obligate parasites such as formae speaiales of Fusa
rium oxysporum. Notwithstanding the acute reasoning of Van der
Plank (52), it is prudent to remember that populations of special
ized non-obligate parasites such as formae speaiales of F. oxyspo
rum usually show a reduced ability to compete freely in the soil
with saprophytic populations of the same species and may perennate
better as resting structures in plant residues, in seeds or prop
agating organs, and also in occasional hosts and carriers. The
normalizing selection that should eliminate phenodeviant individuals
and counteract directional selection by the resistant hosts is not
always easy to interpret.
