Detection of 16SrIII-J phytoplasma in Galega officinalis L., a weed commonly associated to pome fruit orchards in Chile Zamorano Alan, González Ximena, Pino Ana María, Quiroga Nicolás, Fiore Nicola* University of Chile, Facultad de Ciencias Agronómicas, Departamento de Sanidad Vegetal, Santiago, Chile *Corresponding author e-mail: Nicola Fiore (nfiore@uchile.cl)
Online published on 2 January, 2015. Abstract In a pear orchard of variety d'Anjou located in Maule Region (Chile) several Galega officinalis L. plants exhibited yellowing leaves. Nested polymerase chain reaction assays, using phytoplasma universal primer pairs P1/P7 and R16F2n/R2 detected phytoplasmas in 100% of symptomatic samples. Restriction fragment length polymorphism analyses, cloning, and sequencing allowed identification of a phytoplasma belonging to ribosomal subgroup 16SrIII-J. This phytoplasma represents a new finding in G. officinalis in Chile. The leafhopper Paratanus exitiosus, vector of 16SrIII-J phytoplasma, is largely distributed in the country, associated to different weed species and crops of agronomic interest confirming the potential epidemiological importance of this phytoplasma in Chile. Top Keywords Galega officinalis, nested-PCR, 16S rRNA gene, RFLP, sequencing. Top |