Mycoplasma are the smallest free-living prokaryotes lacking a cell wall and are, therefore, highly pleomorphic. This book is a contribution toward an understanding of the complex problems of tree diseases caused by mycoplasma-like organisms and their relatives.

Mycoplasma Diseases of Trees and Shrubs contains the edited papers presented at the Third Working Party meeting organized by Professor Karl Maramorosch at Rutgers University, New Jersey, in August 1979. This book also includes additional chapters by the invited contributors in the meeting. Organized into 15 chapters, this book begins with the isolation, characterization and identification of spiroplasmas and mycoplasma-like organisms. It then describes the various diseases of trees and shrubs, specifically yellows disease, stubborn disease, Paulownia witches' broom disease, mulberry dwarf, blueberry stunt, and sandal spike disease. It also elaborates the control of tree diseases by chemotherapy. This treatise will provide a standard reference work for all interested in plant mycoplasma diseases in forest pathology, entomology, and disease control.

This book contains a wealth of information on Mollicutes. It provides an interdisciplinary coverage of the up-to-date information on Mollicutes such as Mycoplasma, Spiroplasma, Phytoplasma and plant diseases caused by different Mollicutes. This bok is intended to serve postgraduate and graduate students. To the students, this book is not merely a general reference; it is equivalent to several textbooks. Contents: Introduction, Classification of Mollicutes, Mycoplasma, Phytoplasma, Spiroplasma, Plant Diseases.

Fruit tree viruses, mycoplasma and rickettsia-like pathogen geral. Virus diseases of: pomaceous trees, stone fruit trees shell fruits. Mycoplasma diseases of fruit trees. Rickettsia diseases of fruit trees. Disorders and injuries of fruit trees that resemble virus diseases.

Only 14 years have passed since the first publication appeared which implicated mycoplasmas as agents of plant disease. The diseases them selves have been known for much longer; indeed clover phyllody, a typical example, was described in the seventeenth century, well before any animal mycoplasma diseases had been documented. The early history of plant mycoplasmas is described in Chapter 2 and one obvious conclusion to be drawn from the frustrating experiences of the earlier workers is that the experimental methods at their disposal were simply inadequate for the task. Progress in science depends critically upon the development of new methods. Although important advances have been made in plant and insect mycoplasmology, notably in the discovery of spiroplasmas, many intractable problems remain. Most plant myco plasmas cannot yet be cultured in vitro, and their natural plant habitat, the phloem, is one of the most difficult plant tissues for the experi menter to handle, placing severe restrictions on the type of experiments which can be performed in vivo. It is clear that radically new methods may be required to solve these problems. A survey of the progress which has been made shows that application of techniques from a wide range of disciplines has been necessary. A successful individual or group of workers must possess the skills of a plant pathologist, a plantsman, a plant physiologist, a light-and electron microscopist, a bacteriologist, a biochemist, an immunologist, an ento mologist, a virologist and a molecular geneticist.