Novel aster yellows phytoplasma subgroup associated with sandalwood spike disease in Kerala, India Kirdat Kiran1, Sundararaj Ramachandran2, Mondal Soma2, Reddy Mustipally K.2, Thorat Vipool2, Yadav Amit1,* 1National Centre for Microbial Resource, National Centre for Cell Science, Pashan, Pune, Maharashtra, India 2Forest and Wood Protection Division, Institute of Wood Science & Technology, Malleswaram, Bengaluru, India *Corresponding author e-mail: Amit Yadav (amityadav@nccs.res.in; amityadav8@gmail.com)
Online published on 25 July, 2019. Abstract The sandal spike disease of sandalwood is known to be associated with aster yellows (AY) phytoplasmas and is a prime threat to sandalwood cultivation in India. The Marayoor Sandalwood Reserve (Kerala state) has an excellent collection of naturalised and matured sandalwood trees and therefore sandalwood forest were surveyed and symptomatic samples were collected from this area. The study confirmed the disease association with AY phytoplasmas and allow to verify the presence of a novel AY phytoplasma strains indicating that phytoplasma strains are differentiating with their plant host species and geographic regions. Top Keywords Aster yellows, phytoplasma, sandal spike disease, Santalum album, Marayoor. Top |