Selective Effects of Victorin on Growth and the Auxin Response in Avena

Victorin, the pathotoxin from the host-specific pathogen, Helminthosporium victoriae, promotes the growth of coleoptile segments when given at concentrations that are high but which still show selective effects on susceptible and resistant tissue. The latent period in the growth response of both susceptible and resistant tissue is about 3.6 minutes compared to 11.0 minutes in the response of these tissues to auxin. The victorinpromoted rate of elongation of 8-millimeter segments is about 0.2 millimeter per hour in susceptible tissue and about 0.1 millimeter per hour in resistant tissue compared to about 0.4 millimeter per hour in response to auxin. At low concentrations, the toxin has no growth-promoting effect in either susceptible or resistant coleoptile segments. Over a wide range of concentrations, victorin inhibits the growth response of susceptible tissue to auxin completely while having no effect on the response of resistant tissue to auxin.Victorin induces solute leakage in coleoptile tissue of susceptible but not resistant varieties of Avena. In susceptible tissue, solute leakage begins about 2 minutes after the addition of toxin and continues for at least 4 hours.The rapidity and close correlation of toxin effects on membrane permeability (2 minutes) and on growth (3.6 minutes) suggest the possibility that the initial action of victorin in both cases may be at the cell surface, perhaps the plasmalemma.