Antibodies to detect pectin in present investigations attached to
distinct fibrils in vessel lumina. In carnation infected with an
isolate of Fusarium oxysporum f.sp., labeling of pathogen
cells also occurred; in a resistant cultivar (cv.), it was coincident
with proximate pectin fibrils and linked to altered fungal walls, which
was the opposite in the susceptible cv., indicating that hindrance of
pathogen ability to degrade pectin may be related to resistance.
Labeling of the fungus in culture was nil, except in media containing
pectin, showing that pectin is not native to the pathogen. Labeling of
fungal walls for cellulose in elm (inoculated with Ophiostoma
novo-ulmi) and carnation also occurred, linked to adsorbed host
wall components. The chitin probe often attached to dispersed matter,
in vessel lumina, traceable to irregularly labeled fungal cells and
host wall degradation products. With an anti-horseradish peroxidase
probe, host and fungal walls were equally labeled, and with a
glucosidase, differences of labeling between these walls were observed,
depending on pH of the test solution. Fungal extracellular matter and
filamentous structures, present in fungal walls, predominantly in
another elm isolate (Phaeotheca dimorphospora), did not label
with any of the probes used. However, in cultures of this fungus,
extracellular material labeled, even at a distance from the colony
margin, with an anti-fimbriae probe.