The effects of Fungi on the Gametophytes of Pteridium aquilinum (L.) Kühn

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Abstract
I. The prothalli have been shown to be convenient subjects for the study of some fungal relationships with green plants. Pure cultures have been established from all the populations examined by germination of young spores, and it has been shown that during dormancy the number of spores which can germinate in pure culture decreases more rapidly than the number which can germinate in cultures containing contaminant fungi. Previous reports of the stimulatory effect of fungi on prothallial growth and development have been confirmed and extended. 2. Prothalli growing on mineral agar have been shown to be potentially susceptible to the attack of a wide variety of pathogens of higher plants, but only two naturally occurring species of fungi pathogenic to prothalli have been found during an examination of growth on a variety of soils from bracken-infested areas in the west of Scotland. 3. The aetiology of the disease incited by Botrytis cmerca in prothalli has been shown to be similar to that of this disease in higher plants. The pathogen is some-times restricted to lesions of limited size around the sites of successful infections and this is associated with changes in the cell walls of the host. A protopectinase solution prepared from a culture of germinating spores by Brown's method induced symptoms in the prothallial cells similar to those induced by the attack of the fungus. The cell-attacking properties of the solution were greatly reduced when the protopectinase content was inactivated by low heat for a short time, but they were not entirely destroyed. This confirms previous indications that more than one complex may be involved in the attack, but since the second moiety demonstrated is at least partially thermolabile the evidence does not support judgement of its relative significance in the attacking process.

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