Investigações sôbre a tristeza dos Citrus: VI - Alguns estudos fisiológicos sôbre a moléstia

• Main Authors: T. J. Grant, A. S. Costa, H. C. Mendes, J. E. de Paiva Neto, Renato A. Catani
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Instituto Agronômico de Campinas 1950-02-01
• Series: Bragantia
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0006-87051950000200002

<abstract language="eng">The present paper reports the results of general studies undertaken to determine the relative importance of soil moisture and light on symptom expression of the tristeza disease. It also includes data on the effects of the disease on transpiration and chemical composition of infected plants and records the results of attempts to inactivate the tristeza virus in budwood by means of hot water and chemical treatments. In the present tests, using potted plants, tristeza disease symptoms were observed to occur eight to ten weeks after inoculation on plants maintained in standing water and on those having a daily application of 200cc of water. In contrast to this relatively rapid and positive symptom expression, it required 28 weeks before definite advanced tristeza disease symptoms were recognized on the inoculated plants given only 50cc of water daily. Under continuous heavy shade conditions the healthy and inoculated plants showed practically no growth and no tristeza disease symptoms. The growth of the healthy plants increased with the increase in periods (6, 10, and 14 hrs) of exposure to daylight while the inoculated plants grew as well as the healthy plants for the first month they subsequently practically ceased growth. The results of the tests on the influence of light and soil moisture show that conditions favorable for rapid plant growth also favor early symptom expression of the disease and that stunting of the plant is one the principal characteristics of the tristeza disease. The data obtained from the transpiration studies show that under the controlled test conditions the transpiration of the healthy plants was two and a half times greater than that of the tristeza diseased plants. The study of chemical composition of the plants indicated that there were some differences in the percentages of CaO and Na(2)0 in the leaves and stems of diseased and healthy plants. The data also indicate that, although the differences in the amount of chemicals present in the root systems of diseased and healthy plants were comparatively small, in all cases except for MgO the quantities were larger in the healthy than in the diseased roots. Under field conditions, nutritional deficiency symptoms have been associated with initial tristeza disease symptoms following plant inoculations. Early tests with applications of minor elements indicated some beneficial effects from applications of zinc sulphate. Under controlled conditions in the screenhouse, however, no beneficial effects were obtained from spray applications of zinc sulphate on inoculated plants. Attempts to inactivate the tristeza virus in budwood sticks that were immersed in hot water were ineffective at the four different temperatures and fourteen exposure periods tested. The results obtained suggest that the thermal-death-point of the virus is probably higher than that of the living cells of the budwood, and that treatment by hot water does not appear to be a feasible method for inactivation of the virus in living budwood. Chemical inactivation of the tristeza virus was tried using nine different chemicals at four dilutions for each. Under the conditions of the tests none of the chemicals employed appeared to have any inhibiting effect on the tristeza virus.