VIEW ARTICLE

Physiology and Biochemistry

Agglutinating Activity in Apple Cell Suspension Cultures Inoculated with a Virulent Strain of Erwinia amylovora. Shih -Tien Hsu, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65201, Present address of senior author: Department of Plant Pathology, National Chung Hsing University, Taichun, Taiwan; Robert N. Goodman, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65201. Phytopathology 68:355-360. Accepted for publication 3 October 1977. Copyright © 1978 The American Phytopathological Society, 3340 Pilot Knob Road, St. Paul, MN 55121. All rights reserved.. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-68-355.

Filtrates from apple cell suspension cultures (ACSC) inoculated with Erwinia amylovora contained a factor(s) which agglutinated cells of E. amylovora and red blood cells (RBC) of several animals. The agglutinating factor was produced in ACSC by a virulent strain but not by an avirulent strain of E. amylovora, and the factor preferentially agglutinated cells of the avirulent strain of the pathogen. Nine partially purified preparations of the toxin amylovorin also possessed agglutinating activity. Virulent cells of E. amylovora, however, agglutinated following pre-treatment with either heat or papain. Cells from older cultures of the virulent strain also were mildly agglutinable.