Soluble Sugar Concentrations in Needles and Bark of Western White Pine in Response to Season and Blister Rust

Download or read book Soluble Sugar Concentrations in Needles and Bark of Western White Pine in Response to Season and Blister Rust written by N. E. Martin and published by . This book was released on 1987 with total page 8 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Amounts of soluble sugars in certain tissues of 12- to 16-year-old western white pine (Pinus monticola Dougl.) trees, each with a blister rust canker girdling about 50 percent of the bole circumference, were compared with rust-free trees. Fructose, glucose, sucrose, raffinose, and stachyose extracted from needles and healthy and diseased bark were identified with thin-layer chromatography and quantified with a densitometer. The host's seasonal growth cycle induced changes in sugar concentrations in current, 1- and 2-year needles, but the bole cankers did not. Amounts of bark sugars characterized the activities of the rust fungus (Cronartium ribicola J.C. Fisch.) as well as the fall, winter, and summer seasons. The amounts of sugars in the bark decreased toward the cankers' centers except for raffinose and stachyose. The greatest differences in amounts of sugars in rusted and nonrusted bark tissues were found in February.