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Permeability Alterations in Detached Carnation Leaf Tissue Inoculated with Pseudomonas caryophylli and Corynebacterium sp.. Chelston W. D. Brathwaite, Graduate Assistant, Department of Plant Pathology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14850, Present address of senior author: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy; Robert S. Dickey, Professor, Department of Plant Pathology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14850. Phytopathology 61:317-321. Accepted for publication 1 October 1970. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-61-317.

Radioactive phosphate (³²P) was incorporated into the phosphate compounds of detached carnation leaf tissue when this tissue was vacuum-infiltrated with a solution of K₂H³²PO₄. Infiltrated leaf tissue was placed into flasks containing sterile distilled water as the bathing solution, and was inoculated with either Pseudomonas caryophylli or Corynebacterium sp. Four phosphate fractions were obtained by partitioning the phosphate compounds of inoculated and noninoculated tissue. These contained, respectively, soluble esters and inorganic phosphate, ribonucleic acids, deoxyribonucleic acids, and phospholipid and phosphoprotein. At 48 hr after inoculation, the radioactivity of the phosphate fractions obtained from tissue inoculated with P. caryophylli was less than that of fractions from noninoculated tissue or tissue inoculated with Corynebacterium sp. An accumulation of ³²P in bathing solutions occurred 12 hr after inoculating tissue with P. caryophylli but not with Corynebacterium sp. Approximately 10.3% and 53.2% of the ³²P initially present in the tissue was detected in bathing solutions at 24 and 48 hr after inoculation with P. caryophylli. Accumulation of ³²P in bathing solutions was inhibited by inhibiting growth of P. caryophylli at 12 hr after inoculation but not at 24 hr after inoculation. Mercaptoethanol and sodium p-chloromercuribenzoate caused a loss of ³²P from infiltrated tissue, while extracts from P. caryophylli-infected tissue did not. It was concluded that P. caryophylli caused an increase in the cellular permeability of detached carnation leaf tissue, while Corynebacterium sp. did not.