Aucuba or Yellow Mosaic of the Tomato Plant: Reaction of Infected Juice

Abstract

IN the course of investigations into the physiology of virus diseases, it was observed that if the expressed juice from a tomato plant infected with aucuba mosaic disease be mixed with an aqueous colloidal solution of tomato chlorophyll, that is, the mixed green pigments extracted from fresh plant material by the method of Willstätter and Stoll from a healthy tomato plant, a marked action occurs under suitable conditions. The most striking manifestation of this action is the development of a brown colour and, apparently, the destruction of a greater or lesser amount of the chlorophyll. This browning action is either not shown or is shown to a very much smaller degree by the sap from a healthy plant.