The Movement of Tobacco Mosaic Viruses and Potato Virus X Through Tomato Plants

Tomato aucuba mosaic virus, tobacco mosaic virus and potato virus X took 3'5‐4, 5 and 3 days respectively to move from inoculated tomato leaflets into the petioles and stems On reaching the stem each virus usually first moved downward, but in some plants both upward and downward movement occurred simultaneously and in a few upward movement occurred first. All three viruses travelled through the stem at approximately the same rate. Each was capable of travelling more than 80 cm. during the first 12 hr. after entering the stem, giving a minimal average rate of about 8 cm. per hr. Uninfected pieces of stem invariably occurred between infected pieces. Maximum lengths of stem through which virus particles had apparently passed without causing infection, were 44.5, 49 and 39 cm. for the three viruses.