The viability of the winter sporangium of Synchytrium Endobioticum (Schilb.) Perc., the organism causing wart disease in potato

SUMMARY A staining method for testing the viability of the winter sporangia of Synchytrium endobioticum is described. The sporangial contents are pressed out into acid fuchsin or after treatment by a strongly alkaline reagent into methylene blue. The staining reactions have been correlated with the results of infection experiments in pots. Sporangia which, like the controls stain faintly, produce a high percentage infection and are therefore alive. Those which stain deeply and rapidly produce no infection and are presumably dead. There is an intermediate group in which some sporangia stain deeply and some are intermediate in reaction. This group tends to give less infection than the controls. A method whereby sporangia which have been treated in soil may be extracted without affecting their viability is described. The method depends on the difference in specific gravity of sporangia which has been determined as about 1.17 and of soil which is in the region of 2.5. The sporangia are extracted by means of chloroform (sp. gr. 1.5 approx.), which does not affect their viability. A study of the relation of temperature, time and viability shows that treatment for 5 minutes at 90°C., 15 minutes at 80°C., 1 hour at 70°C. and 8 hours at 60°C. have a similar effect in killing all the sporangia.