Occurrence and Characterization of a 16SrII‐D Subgroup Phytoplasma Associated with Parsley Witches’ Broom Disease in Iran |
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| Authors: | Mohammad Salehi Seyyed Alireza Esmailzadeh Hosseini Elham Salehi Assunta Bertaccini |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Plant Protection Research Department, Fars Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, AREEO, Shiraz, Iran;2. Plant Protection Research Department, Yazd Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, AREEO, Yazd, Iran;3. Department of Agricultural Sciences, Plant Pathology, Alma Mater Studiorum ‐ University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy |
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| Abstract: | During 2010–2013 surveys for the presence of phytoplasma diseases in Yazd province (Iran), a parsley witches’ broom (PrWB) disease was observed. Characteristic symptoms were excessive development of short spindly shoots from crown buds, little leaf, yellowing, witches’ broom, stunting, flower virescence and phyllody. The disease causative agent was dodder transmitted from symptomatic parsley to periwinkle and from periwinkle to periwinkle by grafting inducing phytoplasma‐type symptoms. Expected length DNA fragments of nearly 1800 and 1250 bp were, respectively, amplified from naturally infected parsley and experimentally inoculated periwinkle plants in direct polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using phytoplasma primer pair P1/P7 or nested PCR using the same primer pair followed by R16F2n/R16R2 primers. Restriction fragment length polymorphism and phylogenetic analyses of 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that the phytoplasma associated with PrWB disease in Yazd province belong to 16SrII‐D phytoplasma subgroup. This is the first report of association of a 16SrII‐related phytoplasma with PrWB disease in Iran. |
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| Keywords: | 16S rRNA ‘ Candidatus Phytoplasma australasia’ dodder and graft transmission molecular analysis parsley diseases |
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