Abstract
The virulence of a pathogen depends upon numerous factors, including the availability of essential nutrilites from the host. If the host cannot supply all these nutrilites, either in quantity or in a form suitable for assimilation, the pathogen cannot proliferate and produce the characteristic reactions in the host. For example, purine-requiring mutants of Salmonella typhosa 1 and of Klebsiella pneumoniae 2 were avirulent for mice because the requirement for purine was apparently not satisfied by the host. Garber et al. 2 suggested that auxotrophic mutants of pathogens may be useful for purposes of bioassay. Preliminary data from experiments using a plant pathogen, Erwinia aroideae, and the potato tuber, var. Red Russet, suggest that this technique may be extended to plant material in certain instances.
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Steward, F. C., and Preston, C., Plant Physiol., 15, 23 (1940).
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GARBER, E., HACKETT, A. Virulence of Auxotrophic Mutants of Erwinia aroideae . Nature 173, 88 (1954). https://doi.org/10.1038/173088a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/173088a0
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