VIEW ARTICLE

Techniques

Ratoon Stunting Disease of Sugarcane: Serology. A. G. Gillaspie, Jr., Research Plant Pathologist, Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, MD 20705; Phytopathology 68:529-532. Accepted for publication 3 August 1977. Copyright © 1978 The American Phytopathological Society, 3340 Pilot Knob Road, St. Paul, MN 55121. All rights reserved.. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-68-529.

Antisera were developed against the bacterium associated with the ratoon stunting disease (RSD) of sugarcane. The bacterium was selectively concentrated from the juice of ratoon stunting-diseased (RS-diseased) sugarcane or sudangrass hybrid. The antisera caused clumping of the bacterium and removed the infectivity from juice prepared from RS-diseased sugarcane or sudangrass hybrid. No serological relationship could be shown between the RSD-associated bacterium and Corynebacterium flaccumfaciens, C. michiganense, or C. fascians by the microagglutination test. The microagglutination test was not applicable for the diagnosis of RSD in raw sugarcane juice from diseased plants because of the low number of bacterial cells per milliliter. The bacteria were not degraded by sonication, pyrrolidine, or enzyme treatments.