VIEW ARTICLE

Cytology and Histology

Ultrastructure of Potato Spindle Tuber Viroid-Infected Tomato Leaf Tissue. V. Hari, Department of Biological Sciences, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202; Phytopathology 70:385-387. Accepted for publication 22 October 1979. Copyright 1980 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-70-385.

Tomato leaves from healthy and potato spindle tuber viroid (PSTV)-infected leaves were fixed and processed for transmission electron microscopy. The ultrastructure of the cells of infected leaves showed two important variations from cells of healthy leaves. First, (as in citrus exocortis viroid [CEV]-infected Gynura leaf cells) tomato leaf cells infected by PSTV developed the paramural bodies known as plasmalemmasomes. These plasmalemmasomes were of different sizes and shapes and showed internal structural variations. Second, infected leaf cells showed aberrations of the thylakoid membrane system of the chloroplasts and the grana were not well developed. No differences were found in the numbers of starch grains or electron-dense osmophilic granules in infected and healthy plants.