Dear all,
I was checking some tomato roots which should be colonized by fungal endophytes, I ended up seeing those Dark/pigmented structures, I stained my roots with Wheat Germ Agglutinin but nothing was stained at all, so I assume they are formed by the plant.
Does anybody know what could that be? could it be starch accumulation in root tissues ?
I appreciate any idea/assumption/advice which may lead me to knowing what that is .
P.S : Picture is fresh roots using normal light microscopy , 10X and 40X
Thanx in advance
pictures are not clear. Rather colour photographs will be more helpful. Please try to upload colour pictures.
If it is starch then a simple test with iodine will show it; starch then appears dark blue to black depending on how long the stain is in contact with the starch. However, I doubt this is the case as you say the patches are brown; starch is not brown but white and occurs as discrete particles - look potato and sweet potato for starches showing two slightly different ways in which the starch is laid down.
It is more likely these are tannin deposits or if confined to the vascular tissue (xylem) then it could be the fungus Fusarium that often attacks tomato. Tannin accumulation is more frequently aligned with tissue damage e.g. nematode or pathogenic organisms.
for fungi you could use cotton blue, or trypan blue. I could be a zoosporangium, that could narrow down your chances. Tomato is a host to some plasmodiophorids
Thank you all for the very informative contribution,
Actually it doesn't look like any typical horizontal structure, but could have been other endophyte though
I just stained the roots with Iodine, and I think what I have here is starch .
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Agricultural Science
- Agronomy