VIEW ARTICLE

Effect of Plant Hormones on Virus-Replicating Capacity of Cotton Infected with Tobacco Mosaic Virus. P. C. Cheo, Chief, Research Division, Los Angeles State and County Arboretum, Arcadia, California 91006; Phytopathology 61:869-872. Accepted for publication 4 March 1971. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-61-869.

Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) is highly resistant to tobacco mosaic virus infection. The low virus-replicating capacity in cotton can be increased by dark treatment, and by application of kinetin, indole-3-acetic acid, 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, Ethrel (2-chloroethylphosphonic acid), and 4-dichloro-phenyl-1-1-dimethylurea. The virus increase due to dark treatment is counteracted by a supplementing of sucrose in the excised leaf culture. Ethrel releases ethylene; and its application, similar to the dark treatment, is to accelerate tissue senescence. Ethrel treatment favors virus increase in cotton and cucumber, but not in Physalis floridana. 4-Dichlorophenyl-1-1-dimethylurea produces virus increase in cotton and cucumber but not in P. floridana.