PROTEIN CHANGES AND HYPERSENSITIVE REACTION IN VIRUS-INFECTED BEAN LEAVES (*)

The appearance of new, host-coded proteins during viral hypersensitive infections has been widely studied in tobacco plants (GIANINAZZI et al, 1970; VAN LOON and VAN KAMMEN, 1970; GIANINAZZI et al, 1977; ANTONIW et al., 1980; ANTONIW and WHITE, 1980; PIERPOINT et al. , 1981; AHL et al., 1982) and reported for a few other plant species such as cowpea (COUTTS, 1978; COUTTS and WAGIH, 1981) and Gomphrena globosa (PENNAZIO and REDOLFI, 1980; REDOLFI et al., 1982). Some authors (GIANINAZZI, 1981; KASSANIS, 1981) have claimed that these proteins are involved in the resistance phenomena associated with the hypersensitive reaction, but others (FRASER, 1981, 1982; WAGIH and COUTTS, 1981) have questioned their relevance. The accumulation of such proteins does in any case represent an important biochemical feature of hypersensitively responding plants. A better knowledge of the behaviour of other plant species in this respect could clarify some debated point of this phenomenon. We report here on alterations in the protein patterns of hypersensitively infected bean leaves. Preliminary results were presented by REDOLFI and CANTISANI (1981) and a paper on the same subject appeared during the preparation of this manuscript (ABUJAWDAH, 1982).