TOTAL LIPID, FREE STEROL, FREE FATTY ACID, AND TRIACYLGLYCEROL FATTY ACID CONTENT OF TOBACCO MOSAIC VIRUS-INFECTED TOBACCO
North Carolina 88 tobacco, a systemic host of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), was inoculated at the third leaf stage with purified TMV. Inoculated, asymptomatic, and systemically infected, symptomatic leaves were harvested 24 days after inoculation and analyzed for total lipids, free sterols, free fatty acids and triacylglycerol fatty acids. Infection resulted in significant quantitative increases in free sterol and decreases in both free and triacylglycerol fatty acid concentrations, but no changes in total lipid concentrations. Changes in all lipid components assayed occurred in TMV-inoculated leaves as well as in systemically infected leaves, with the only significant difference between them being a lower concentration of the triacylglycerol fatty acid, linolenic acid, in systemically infected leaves.