Abstract
IN 1933, Samuel and Garrett1 published their observation that ascospores are violently ejected from the perithecia of the fungus Ophiobolus graminis (Sacc.) Sacc. and thus become air-borne; it had previously been supposed that these spores were merely washed down into the soil by rain. Samuel and Garrett, therefore, suggested that the association between outbreaks of the take-all disease of wheat in its whiteheads form and seasons of good spring rainfall in South Australia might be connected with the occurrence of suitable conditions for liberation and dispersal of ascospores, and for subsequent infection of wheat roots by them. Later, however, Garrett2 reported that he had been unable to secure infection of wheat seedling roots by inoculation with ascospores when the seedlings were growing in unsterilized soil or sand. Infection was readily obtained, however, by inoculation of seedlings growing in completely sterile soil or sand. Garrett explained his results by postulating that the food reserves of an individual ascospore were insufficient for establishment of a progressive root infection, unless supplemented by the microbial nutrients liberated by soil sterilization, or by those provided by root excretions, which would be wholly available to the germinating ascospores in sterile, but not in unsterile, sand.
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References
Samuel, G., and Garrett, S. D., Phytopath., 23, 721 (1933).
Garrett, S. D., Ann. App. Biol., 26, 47 (1939).
Garrett, S. D., Chron. Bot., 12, 181 (1948).
Bosma, W. A., Versl. Dir. Wieringermeer (Noordoostpolderwerken), No. 3 (1946).
Garrett, S. D., Plant Pathology, 3 (Academic Press, New York, 1960).
Gregory, P. H., and Stedman, O. J., Trans. Brit. Mycol. Soc., 41, 449 (1958).
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BROOKS, D. Infection of Wheat Roots by Ascospores of Ophiobolus graminis. Nature 203, 203 (1964). https://doi.org/10.1038/203203a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/203203a0
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