Diversity among phytoplasmas infecting ornamental plants grown in India

Abstract

Phytoplasmas were identified in five ornamental species grown in gardens of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, India and showing suspected phytoplasma symptoms through nested PCR assays. DNA from symptomatic ornamental plants was extracted and amplification of phytoplasma ribosomal DNA was done with the universal phytoplasma primer pairs. The 1.2 kbp amplicons were cloned, sequenced and deposited in GenBank database. Based on sequence identities and phylogenetic relationships, the new phytoplasma strains identified have been classified as related to ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma asteris’ (16SrI) group.