The Relation of Blocked Chloroplast Differentiation to Sugarcane Leaf Scald Disease

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Abstract
Study of the ultrastructure of chlorotic leaf tissue from sugarcane and sweet corn [Zea mays var. saccharata] with systemic leaf scald confirmed that the pathogen, Xanthomonas albilineans, was confined to the xylem during early disease development. Xylem vessels were sometimes blocked by tightly packed bacteria, but adjacent bundle sheath and mesophyll parenchyma were not invaded. Chloroplasts were absent from cells surrounding invaded vessels in narrow white leaf stripes, and from uninvaded white leaves emerging after invasion of sugarcane stalks by the pathogen. Proplastids, etioplasts and vesicular forms, but no degenerating chloroplasts, were present in white leaf areas. X. albilineans in invaded xylem probably produces a diffusible phytotoxin, which blocks chloroplast differentiation at the proplastid or etioplast stages.

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