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THE DEVELOPMENT AND CYTOLOGY OF THE EPIBIOTIC PHASE OF PHYSODERMA PULPOSUM
Author(s) -
Lingappa Yamuna
Publication year - 1959
Publication title -
american journal of botany
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.218
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1537-2197
pISSN - 0002-9122
DOI - 10.1002/j.1537-2197.1959.tb06996.x
Subject(s) - sporangium , biology , flagellum , botany , anatomy , spore , paleontology , bacteria
L ingappa , Y amuna . (U. Michigan, Ann Arbor.) The development and cytology of the epibiotic phase of Physoderma pulposum. Amer. Jour. Bot. 46(3) : 145‐150. Illus. 1959.— Physoderma pulposum , a chytrid parasite on Chenopodium album L. and Atriplex patula L., has a zoosporangial epibiotic phase. The latter consists of extramatrical sporangia and intramatrical bushy rhizoids, both enclosed in large protruding galls. The sporangia are subspherical, up to 350μ in diameter, and may produce hundreds of planospores. If planospores settle on the host surface, they develop narrow germ tubes which penetrate the epidermal cells and develop into rhizoids. The planospore body, however, remains on the host surface and develops into a mature epibiotic sporangium in about 20‐25 days at 16°C., 12‐15 days at 20‐25°C., or 6‐8 days at 30°C. During development, its nucleus and daughter nuclei divide mitotically with intranuclear spindles until the sporangium contains several hundred nuclei. This is followed by progressive cleavage which delimits the planospore rudiments. When mature sporangia are placed in fresh water, the planospores are quickly formed within 1 hr. at 25°C. and begin to swarm within the sporangia. They escape in large numbers through an opening formed by the deliquescence of a papillum in the sporangial wall. The planospores are subspherical or elongate, 3‐5 × 4‐6 μ, and each has an eccentric orange‐yellow refractive globule and a flagellum 18‐22 μ in length. The electron micrographs of the flagella indicate that the flagella are absorbed from tip backward during encystment of the planospores. By periodic inoculation of the host plants with planospores from epibiotic sporangia, as well as from germinating resting sporangia, generation after generation of epibiotic sporangia have been obtained for 4 years. This proves the existence of a eucarpic, epibiotic, ephemeral zoosporangial phase in P. pulposum . Field observations on the duration and sequence of development of the fungus indicate that the endobiotic resting sporangial phase always follows the epibiotic phase. The results of infection experiments also indicate that the epi‐ and endobiotic phases belong to one and the same fungus, P. pulposum .