Germination of Resting Bodies in Verticillium Species

Abstract

ALTHOUGH detailed investigations have been carried out on the morphology, physiology and pathology of Verticillium species, there are very few references to the function and germination of the resting bodies formed by these fungi. Reinke and Berthold¹ drew diagrams of structures resembling germ-tubes emerging from resting mycelium but they gave no details. Basu² and Van den Ende³, working with Verticillium spp., failed to induce germination of microsclerotia. Wilhelm⁴ has stated that resting bodies of V. albo-atrum in diseased tomato tissue germinated by becoming covered with conidial heads. This, however, does not directly prove, but merely implies, germination.