Presented by

Lt. Deore P.B.

Reg. No. 2018A/15P

DEPARTMENT OF PLANT PATHOLOGY

COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE,
VNMKV, PARBHANI 431 402 (M.S.)
Martinus Willem Beijerinck
 Spot disease:
 Infectious
 Not caused by microbes
 Cause: Cantagium vivum fludum
 Fluid?
 Viruses: liquid or soluble
 Virus reproduce in living plant
 Virus attacks only on living cells/tissues
 On storage not losing virulence
 Virus moves with flow of water
 Partial destruction of virus on drying
 Boiling destroy virus
 Albinism transmitted by grafting
Erwin Baur
 Born: April 16, 1875
 1900: Doctor's degree in Medicine
 1903: Doctor of Philosophy in Botany
 1910: Professor, Botanical Institute, University of Berlin,
o Work on infectious variegation
o Field of heredity
o Founded a professorship in genetics
 1929: Director,
Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Genetic Research, Berlin

Hans Stubbe, writes, "He needed but very little for himself. With simple
mind of a farmer, living close to nature we find combined in him great
intellectual powers of his countrymen which made him a skillful diplomat &
a powerful opponent."
On etiology of infectious variegation
Erwin Baur
 Albinism: Leaf-variegation/Panachure
o Frequent panachure (variegation): Non/infectious
o Infectious chlorosis (Chlorosis infectiosa)
 Infectious chlorosis:
 Transmission: grafting
 Only embryonic leaves: infected
 fully developed leaves/ phase of expansion: Non-infected
 Non-transmitted : seed
Various Malvaceae sp. varyingly susceptible
Abutilon
On etiology of infectious variegation

 Infectious chlorosis
 No parasite found
 Pathologists:
 Only living organisms are causative agents of infectious
diseases
 Non-living matter ? Illogical & invalid
 ? Infected individual derived inoculum
 ? Virus of an infectious disease must multiply in body of
diseased organism
 Such growth & increase attributed only to organisms/
living substances
On etiology of infectious variegation
 “A non-organized (pure chemical) substance, which will
be able to assimilate foreign substances, in order to
rebuild itself from them, such a substance is yet
unknown to us. …”
 If we come in contact anywhere with a "something" that
has this capacity of growth & multiplication, then we
must conclude, on basis of our present knowledge, that
this "something" is a living organism.
 Infectious diseases, i.e., diseases in which virus
increases within infected individuals, can, therefore, be
produced only by living organisms.
 ad infinitum …….
 Virus of infectious chlorosis reproduce within infected
plant
 On etiology of infectious variegation
 In spite of this virus certainly cannot be a living
organism ………..?
 Prerequisite for an infection is only condition that there
exist between tissue of grafted infected twig or leaf &
tissue of plant to be infected a firm callus union & that it
endure a certain short time. A different mode of infection
is not known.
 Transmission experiments: negative result
Wounds smeared leaf-pulp
Injection experiments
Forced juice into intercellular spaces
Root deep in unfiltered juice…………………
 No single case of infection than by grafting.
He conclude that prerequisite to an infection is callus
union of a healthy with a diseased plant.
 On etiology of infectious variegation
 He also proved that infectious substance unknown to
him cannot be a living organism.
 Reasoning:
 Ability to exist dependent upon occasional grafting’s
 All plants attacked by infectious chlorosis reproduce in
nature only by seed & not by runners or like.
 How then would hypothetical causative agent move from
one plant to other if first one dies?
 A parasitic organism that has such a limited capacity to
move from one host-plant to another is not at all capable
of existence
On etiology of infectious variegation

 Virus might function as a product of metabolism of

diseased plant
 There is a typically infectious disease for which living
organisms cannot be considered as causative agents.
Erwin Baur

 Viruses living & non-living

 Virus: Product of metabolism in disease plant
 Infectious diseases: Caused by nonliving agent