Carrot Purple Leaf: A New Spiroplasmal Disease Associated with Carrots in Washington State

During the growing seasons of 2003 and 2004, a disease occurred in several carrot crops in south central Washington with symptoms suggestive of infection by phytopathogenic mollicutes (phytoplasmas and spiroplasmas). In the fall, many affected carrot plants exhibited extensive purple or yellow-purple leaf discoloration, general stunting of shoots and taproots, and formation of bunchy, fibrous secondary roots. For detection of the putative causal agents, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays were performed using primers specific to phytoplasmas as well as primers specific to plant-pathogenic spiroplasmas. Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analyses of PCR-amplified 16S rDNA sequences revealed that about 81% of affected plants showing dark purple or yellow-purple leaf symptoms tested positive for Spiroplasma citri. Of affected plants showing mild purple discoloration of leaf margins, 18% tested positive for a phytoplasma strain belonging to the clover proliferation group (16SrVI), subgroup 16SrVI-A, and 11% for another phytoplasma strain belonging to the aster yellows group (16SrI), subgroup 16SrI-A. Nucleotide sequence analysis of cloned 16S rDNA confirmed the phytoplasma group affiliations. Some symptomatic plants were co-infected with S. citri and either aster yellows phytoplasma or clover proliferation group phytoplasma. To our knowledge, this is the first documentation of spiroplasma infection of carrot in the United States.