• Korean Journal Plant Pathology
• /
• v.1 no.2
• /
• pp.101-108
• /
• 1985

Histopathological changes in the witches'-broom mycoplasma (MLO) infected jujube trees after trunk injection of oxytetracycline HCl (OTC) solution were investigated by using light microscope, fluorescence microscope and electron microscope. In contrast to the healthy leaves, adaxial and abaxial bundle sheath extensions in the major veins of diseased leaves were highly developed, but mesophyll cells were very small, loose and necrosed. In the diseased leaves, excessive phloem was formed, xylem differentiation was supressed and polyphenols were accumulated. Jujube trees treated with 500ml of 2000ppm solution of OTC showed complete remission of witches'-broom symptoms above the injection site, but cells in the sheath extention were hypertrophied and sieve tube necrosis occurred in the secondary phloem of major veins. MLO-specific fluorescence was not observed in the samples of diseased jujube trees treated with OTC, while those from non-treated infectedstress distinctly showed a moderate amount of MLO-specific fluorescence. In the observation under the electron microscope, sieve element of diseased tissues and its associated companion cells were found to have collapsed. Parenchymas cells contained many large starch filled plastids and most samples of diseased and OTC-treated tissues showed an abnormal accumulation of starch compared to the healthy controls. Mycoplasma-like organisms were observed only within mature sieve elements in diseased tissues, but never in OTC-treated tissues.