Phytopathogenic Mollicutes
Year : 2019, Volume : 9, Issue : 1
First page : ( 7) Last page : ( 8)
Print ISSN : 2249-4669. Online ISSN : 2249-4677.
Article DOI : 10.5958/2249-4677.2019.00004.5

First report of a ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma aurantifolia’-related strain in Citrus macrophylla in Oman

Al-Subhi Ali M.*, Al-Yahyai Rashid A., Al-Sadi Abdullah M.

Department of Crop Sciences, College of Agricultural and Marine Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman

*Corresponding author e-mail: Ali Al-Subhi (alsubhia@squ.edu.om)

Online published on 25 July, 2019.

Abstract

Citrus macrophylla is one of the most commonly used citrus rootstocks and it was found exhibiting witches’ broom disease symptoms. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to amplify the 16S ribosomal gene of phytoplasmas with the universal primers P1/P7 as a direct PCR and R16F2n/R16R2 primers for the nested PCR. The amplifications from all the symptomatic plants yielded a product of 1.8 kb and 1.2 kb in the direct and the nested PCR, respectively. Sequence identity results from BLAST and phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequences confirmed that the phytoplasma identified in C. macrophylla in Oman is a ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma aurantifolia’-related strain.

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Keywords

Phytoplasma, WBDL, Citrus macrophylla, witches’ broom, Oman.

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