Fig. 3
From: ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma solani’ interferes with the distribution and uptake of iron in tomato
Effects of Fe starvation and phytoplasma infection on phloem ultrastructure. a-d Micrographs of healthy (H/+Fe) plants (a, b) and infected (I/+Fe) plants (c, d); phytoplasmas were detected exclusively in the lumen of the sieve elements (c). In companion and mesophyll cells, chloroplasts showed distorted arrangement of thylakoid stacks and significative accumulation of starch (d). e-g Micrographs of healthy Fe-starved (H/−Fe) tissues (e, f); sieve elements exhibited a regular ultrastructure (e), companion and parenchyma cells exhibited misshaped chloroplasts with large starch grains embedded between granal and stromal lamellae (f). g, h Phytoplasma-infected/Fe-starved (I/−Fe) plants with phytoplasma in sieve elements (g) and severely altered chloroplast ultrastructure (h). cc: companion cell; ch: chloroplast; i: inset; pc: parenchyma cell; se: sieve element; *: starch; arrowheads indicate phytoplasmas. Three non-serial cross sections from five plants were analysed for each condition (n = 15)