First report of a 16SrII group phytoplasma associated with cutleaf groundcherry phyllody
Paper ID : 1871-24IPPC (R3)
Authors
Mohsen Amiri Mazraie 1 , Keramtilah Izadpanah2 , Mohsen Taghavi1 , Siavash Samavi3 , Keramatullah Izadpanah4
1Department of Plant Protection, Shiraz University
2Sgiraz Unicersity
3Department of Plant Protection, Hormozgan Agricultural Organization
4Plant Virology Research Center, Department of Plant Protection, Shiraz University
Abstract
Cutleaf groundcherry (Physalis angulata) is one of the most important weeds in vegetable and oilseed fields in Iran and many parts of the world. In October 2021, several cutleaf groundcherry plants with typical symptoms of phytoplasms diseases were observed in the sesame fields of Haji Abad (Hormozgan province, Iran). The symptomatic plants showed phyllody, witches broom and little leaf. To identify association of phytoplasma with the symptomatic plants, the total genomic DNA were extracted from 0.2 g midribs using modified cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) method. The samples were analyzed for phytoplasma DNA by direct-PCR using the phytoplasma universal primer pair Rl6mF2/R16mR1. fragments of expected size (1434 bp) were amplified with direct PCR in sample of symptomatic plants but not in sample of symptomless plant or sterile distilled water as negative controls. A positive PCR product was directly sequenced and deposited in GenBank under accession no. OM963128. A BLAST search using sequenced fragment showed that the phytoplasma associated with cutleaf groundcherry phyllody (CgP) had 100 % nucleotide identity with those of phytoplasma members (MK421430, MK217101 and MF071490) of the 16SrII group, Candidatus Phytoplasma aurantifolia. Virtual restriction fragment length polymorphism with iPhyClassifier software revealed that CgP phytoplasma belonged to 16SrII-D subgroup. Phytoplasma disease has been reported with cutleaf groundcherry from China, which is closer to the members of the aster yellows group (16SrI-D). To our knowledge, this is the first report of natural infection of cutleaf groundcherry by a 16SrII group phytoplasma in Iran and most probably in the world.
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