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Abstract: The names Mummy disease, La France disease, Brown disease, Watery Stipe and X-disease were given to mushroom disorders having some characterictics in common, but all of unknown cause. The multiplicity of names arose because of the great variety of symptoms observed and the difficulty of determining their causes. Investigations at the Glasshouse Crops Research Institute on this type of disorder began as a result of devastating crop losses in Britain during 1957. The macroscopic symptoms described at that time were very variable, the only consistent one being the virtual absence of mushrooms. The few which were produced were frequently distorted. The outbreaks were variously attributed to wet composts, inadequate ventilation allied to high temperatures and relative humidities and an unknown pathogen. The first experiments in this study were designed to find if any of the outbreaks were associated with a transmissible agent. This was successfully achieved when trays filled with spawned compost were inoculated with material taken from diseased beds. Water extracts of this material, from which fragments of mycelium and micro-organisms larger than yeasts had been removed by filtration, did not transmit the disease. As the investigation continued, the possibility that a bacterium or fungus was responsible was eliminated, leaving as the probable cause either a genetical abnormality or a virus Gandy (1). Experiments by Gandy and Hollings (2) demonstrated the presence of virus particles associated with the disease under investigation. To distinguish it from any other possible disorder, not yet fully characterised, it was named die-back. This refers to the over-riding feature of the disease, the loss of crops associated with infection and death of the mycelium.
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