Mycoplasma-like Organisms Associated in Malformed Flower of Garlic.

Garlic (Allium sativum L.) is usually propagated by bulbs and it was well known for garlic to develop neither functional flowers nor seeds. However, one type of flowering garlic in the clones from foreign country was founds', and then many garlic clones were collected from Central Asia and the Mediterranean area to search flowering garlics for seed production by Etoh et al.6,7 In 1982, malformation of flowers was noticed first in one clone from USSR and then in several flowering clones in the process of seed production at Kagoshima University Farm. Ten of 340 clones showed this type of flower malformation. In these garlic tissues, mycoplasma-like organisms (MLOs) were observed so constantly under an electron microscope and some specific fluorescent spots were also observed under a fluorescence microscope by staining with DAPI (4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole•22HCl). Main symptom was recognized on the flower. Normal garlic showed globular flowers, whose color is generally changed from green to purple. On the contrary flowers associated with MLOs (hereinafter referred as disease) showed ellipse-, trumpet-, cupand other-shapes. Their floral parts were distorted. The swelling of ovaries was limited compared with the normal ones. Diseased flowers and pedicels were found to be white to pale-green and the inside of the ovary was wet when it was cut into halves. The shape of spathes was irregular. They did not swell and sometimes burst because of badly elongated pedicels or petals in the spathes. Moreover, diseased bulbs grew inadequately. Both normal and diseased flowers are shown in Figs. 1 and 2. For the location of MLO or MLO-associated cells, a fluorescent stain was used against the diseased tissues. Sections were made by hands or a cryo-microtome about 20-30km thick and were fixed in 5%