Detection and identification of phytoplasma associated with witches’ broom and little leaf disease in Arundo donax: first report from India |
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| Authors: | Ajay Kumar Tiwari Kavita Kumari Neeraj Nath Tiwari Pradeep Kumar Akil Ahmad Khan |
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| Institution: | 1. Central Lab, UP Council of Sugarcane Research, Shahjahanpur, India;2. Avram and Stella Goldstein Goren – Department of Biotechnology Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negav, Beer-Sheva, Israel;3. Department of Botany, GF College, Shahjahnapur, India |
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| Abstract: | During the survey of two successive years 2012–2013, in nearby places of Gorakhpur districts, Uttar Pradesh, India, Arundo donax plants were found to be exhibiting witches’ broom, excessive branching accompanied with little leaf symptoms with considerable disease incidence. Nested PCR carried out with universal primers pair R16F2n/R16R2 employing the PCR (P1/P7) product as a template DNA (1:20) resulted in expected size positive amplification ~1.2 kb in all symptom-bearing plants suggested the association of phytoplasma with witches’ broom disease of Narkat plants. BLASTn analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence showed the highest (99%) sequence identity with Candidatus phytoplasma asteris (16SrI group). In phylogenetic analysis, the sequence data showed close relationships with the members of 16SrI phytoplasma and clustered within a single clade of 16SrI group and closed to B subgroup representatives. This is a first report of 16Sr I-B group phytoplasma associated with witches’ broom accompanied with little leaf disease of Narkat in India. |
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| Keywords: | A donax phytoplasma witches’ broom 16S rRNA gene nested PCR BLAST analysis phylogenetic analysis |
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