New Disease Reports
New Disease Reports (2008) 18, 43.
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Phytoplasma associated with a witches'-broom disease of Gleditsia sinensis (Fabaceae) newly reported in China

H. Min 1, Z.N. Li 2, Y.F. Wu 2*, S.B. Hu 3, C.P. Zhang 2 and K.K. Wu 2

*wuyf@nwsuaf.edu.cn

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Accepted: 23 Dec 2008

Gleditsia sinensis (Chinese honeylocust) is widely distributed in China due to its important use in traditional Chinese medicine. In August of 2008, G. sinensis trees in Shanxi Province, exhibited symptoms of witches'-broom, stunting, smaller leaves, and yellowing gradually becoming browning (Fig 1), so a phytoplasma infection was suspected.

Total DNA was extracted from 0.5 g of phloem tissue from leaf midribs and stems of eight symptomatic and eight asymptomatic plants (Angelini et al., 2001). DNAs were analyzed for phytoplasma by a nested PCR assay using phytoplasma universal 16S rDNA primers R16mF1/R16mR1 and R16F2n/R16R2 (Gundersen & Lee, 1996). PCR products of 1.4 and 1.2 kb, respectively, were produced from all symptomatic plants, but not asymptomatic ones. Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analyses of R16F2n/R16R2 amplicons with AluI, HhaI, TaqI, EcoRI, HaeIII, RsaI and HpaII endonucleases, indicated that all symptomatic plants contained a phytoplasma strain of group 16SrV (‘Candidatus Phytoplasma ulmi’), subgroup B (16SrV-B). The G. sinensis phytoplasma 16S rDNA sequence (GenBank Accession No. FJ457095) scored the highest identity (99%) with those of group 16SrV, thereby confirming strain identity based on RFLP. Phytoplasmas of 16SrV have been previously reported on jujube (Zhu et al., 1997) and paper mulberry (Liu et al., 2004 ) causing witches’-broom in China. However to our knowledge, this is the first report of a ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma ulmi’-related strain affecting G. sinensis in China.

Figure1+
Figure 1: Symptoms of witches'-broom disease observed in Gleditsia sinensis (Fabaceae) in China
Figure 1: Symptoms of witches'-broom disease observed in Gleditsia sinensis (Fabaceae) in China

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the 111 project from Education Ministry of China, No.B07049 and National Natural Science Foundation of China (30871625) for their support.

References

  1. Angelini E, Clair D, Borgo M, Bertaccini A, Boudon-Padieu E, 2001. Flavescence dorée in France and Italy - occurrence of closely related phytoplasma isolates and their near relationships to Palatinate grapevine yellows and an alder yellows phytoplasma. Vitis 40, 79–86.
  2. Gundersen DE , Lee IM, 1996, Ultrasensitive detection of phytoplasmas by nested-PCR assays using two universal primer pairs. Phytopathologia Mediterranea 35, 144-151.
  3. Liu Q, Wu T, Davis RE, Zhao Y, 2004. First Report of Witches’-Broom Disease of Broussonetia papyrifera and Its Association with a Phytoplasma of Elm Yellows Group (16SrV). Plant Disease 88, 770.
  4. Zhu SF, Hadidi A, Gundersen DE, Lee IM, Zhang CL, 1997. Characterization of the phytoplasmas associated with cherry lethal yellows and jujube witches’-broom diseases in China. Acta Horticulturae 472, 701–714.
This report was formally published in Plant Pathology

©2008 The Authors