The ultrastructure of pecans was investigated using light microscopy, environmental scanning electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. Specific methodology for the sample preparation of pecans for electron microscopy investigations was developed. Electron microscopy of the ultrastructure of opalescent (discoloration of the interior) and nonopalescent kernels revealed that cellular damage was occurring in opalescent kernels. The damage was due to cell wall and membrane rupture, which accounted for the release of oil throughout the kernel. This rupture is due to the lower level of calcium in the cell membranes of opalescent pecans, as shown by energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry, making them more susceptible to damage.

No abstract

Two yellows-type diseases occur in Queensland strawberries. Affected plants show purple or bronze pigmentation of older leaves, followed by the production of small chlorotic leaves. Flower production is inhibited, and some affected plants die. Thin-section electron microscopy showed that there were two diseases, one associated with rickettsia-like organisms (RLO) and the other with mycoplasma-like organisms (MLO), both of which were found only in sieve tubes. The MLO disease caused flower abortion but not green petals, and was not transmitted by Orosius argentatus (Evans), the tomato big bud vector. The RLO disease produced more bronze pigmentation and the young leaf chlorosis was interveinal rather than marginal. This organism was sensitive to penicillin, and soil drenches of 1 mg/ml every 5 days for 7 weeks caused complete remission of symptoms. No organisms were seen in thin sections of leaves after treatment. Although these RLO morphologically resembled those associated with rugose leaf curl (RLC) disease of legumes, experiments with the RLC vector Austroagallia torrida Evans indicated that they were probably distinct.

A potyvirus, which we call ceratobium mosaic virus, has been detected in about one third of more than 100 plants representing c. 33 orchid genera in two collections in Australia. It was detected using RT-PCR with redundant primers that are Potyviridae-specific and have additional sequences corresponding to either the SP6 or T7 bacteriophage promoters at their 5'-termini. Thus the nucleotide sequence of the resulting PCR fragments, consisting of about 1.7 kb of the 3' portion of the viral genome, could be determined directly. Viral sequences obtained from five infected orchids indicate that they contained different isolates of a single potyvirus species most closely related to the bean common mosaic group of potyviruses, but clearly distinct from all whose virion protein genes have been reported to the international gene sequence databases.

A subgroup 2 rhabdovirus was isolated in south-east Queensland from black-eyed Susan {Thunbergia alata) with symptoms of vein yellowing, vein clearing and leaf distortion. Bacilliform particles accumulated in the perinuclear space of infected plants and measured 69 ± 7 X 161 ± 8 nm in unfixed preparations. The virus was not transmitted mechanically. Purified preparations of the Thunbergia alata rhabdovirus (TaRV) contained four major proteins with molecular weights of 80 kD, 48 kD, 40 kD and 35 kD, similar to those of datura yellow vein virus (DYW), a newly described rhabdovirus from Australia. The 80 kD protein was identified as the viral glycoprotein. In immunoblots, the two largest proteins of TaRV reacted strongly with antiserum to DYW, but were serologically distinct from sonchus yellow net, cereal chlorotic mottle, potato yellow dwarf and lettuce necrotic yellows viruses. TaRV is considered to be a strain of DYW.