Open AccessMolecular and Symptom Analysis Reveal the Presence of New Phytoplasmas Associated with Sugarcane Grassy Shoot Disease in India
Author(s) -
Kanchan Nasare,
Amit Yadav,
Anil Kumar Singh,
K. B. Shivasharanappa,
Y. S. Nerkar,
Vanga Siva Reddy
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
plant disease
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.663
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1943-7692
pISSN - 0191-2917
DOI - 10.1094/pdis-91-11-1413
Subject(s) - phytoplasma , biology , 16s ribosomal rna , polymerase chain reaction , saccharum officinarum , sequence analysis , ribosomal rna , ribosomal dna , internal transcribed spacer , shoot , botany , genetics , phylogenetics , gene , restriction fragment length polymorphism
A total of 240 sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) plants showing phenotypic symptoms of sugarcane grassy shoot (SCGS) disease were collected from three states of India, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Uttar Pradesh. Phytoplasmas were detected in all symptomatic samples by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of phytoplasma-specific 16S rRNA gene and 16S-23S rRNA spacer region (SR) sequences. No amplification was observed when DNA from asymptomatic plant samples was used as a template. Sixteen samples were selected on the basis of phenotypic symptoms and geographic location, and cloning and sequencing of the 16S rRNA and spacer regions were performed. Multiple sequence alignments of the 16S rRNA sequences revealed that they share very high sequence similarity with phytoplasmas of rice yellow dwarf, 16SrXI. However, the 16S-23S rRNA SR sequence analysis revealed that while the majority of phytoplasmas shared very high (>99%) sequence similarity with previously reported sugarcane phytoplasmas, two of them, namely BV2 (DQ380342) and VD7 (DQ380343), shared relatively low sequence similarity (79 and 84%, respectively). Therefore, these two phytoplasmas may be previously unreported ones that cause significant yield losses in sugarcane in India.