Agronomy and Crop Science

Witches'-broom disease of lime (WBDL) caused by ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma aurantifolia’ is a devastating disease in the Sultanate of Oman, United Arab Emirates, and southern Iran. The disease primarily affects lime (Citrus aurantifolia), but in Iran, it is also found in bakraee, a natural C. reticulata hybrid. The disease has been experimentally transmitted from lime to several citrus cultivars by grafting and to a number of herbaceous hosts by dodder. However, the natural vector of ‘Ca. P. aurantifolia’ has not been determined. The most common phloem-feeding insect associated with lime trees in the area is the leafhopper Hishimonus phycitis. The WBDL phytoplasma has been detected in the body of this leafhopper by ELISA and PCR (1), but previous attempts to establish its vector status have failed. It was recently reported that the leafhopper can release the phytoplasma into a sugar solution by feeding through a Parafilm membrane (4). Here we report successful transmission of WBDL phytoplasma to bakraee seedlings by H. phycitis. The leafhopper nymphs and adults were collected in a WBDL-infected lime orchard in Minab (Hormozgan Province) in May of 2006. Of more than 100 leafhopper samples tested, at least 70% were positive for the phytoplasma by PCR using P1/P7 primer pair (3). Additional field-collected leafhoppers were caged (five per plant) on bakraee seedlings at the two-leaf stage in pots in the greenhouse in Zarghan (Fars Province). After 8 weeks, the remaining leafhoppers were killed with an insecticide. Six months after inoculation, 3 of 10 inoculated plants showed typical symptoms of WBDL, including bud proliferation, general chlorosis, and stunting. Symptomatic plants were strongly positive in PCR assays using primer pair P1/P7. No amplification was obtained with healthy control lime or nonsymptomatic bakraee seedlings. Amplified P1/P7 primed PCR products (1,800 bp) from experimentally vector-challenged bakraee seedlings, captured H. phycitis, and a naturally infected lime tree from Minab were subjected to restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis using AluI, HhaI, HpaII, RsaI, and TaqI enzymes. RFLP patterns from these sources were identical and similar to those reported earlier (2). These analyses verified the identity of WBDL phytoplasma in experimentally infected bakraee seedlings. To our knowledge, this is the first report of natural transmission of ‘Ca. P. aurantifolia’ by H. phycitis. References: (1) J. M. Bové et al. Proc. Conf. IOCV 12:342. 1993. (2) A. J. Khan et al. Phytopathology 92:1038, 2002. (3) B. Schneider et al. Pages 369–380 in: Molecular and Diagnostic Procedures in Mycoplasmology. Vol. 2. S. Razin and J. G. Tully, eds. Academic Press, New York, 1995. (4) M. Siampour et al. Iran. J. Plant Pathol. 41:139 (Farsi) and 35 (English), 2006.

Australian lucerne yellows (ALuY), a phytoplasma-associated disease, is a major problem in Australia that causes the pasture seed industry millions of dollars in losses annually (3). Samples were collected from lucerne (Medicago sativa L.) plants exhibiting symptoms indicative of ALuY (4) in a seed lucerne paddock (cv CW 5558) at Griffith, southwestern New South Wales (NSW), Australia, in November 2005 and again in January 2006. Samples were kept at 4°C and processed within 36 h of collection. Total DNA was extracted from approximately 0.3 g of leaf midribs and petioles of each plant sample and used as template in a nested PCR assay with phytoplasma universal primer pairs P1/P7 and fU5/m23sr. PCR products resulting from the first amplification were diluted (1:30) with sterile distilled water (SDW) before reamplification with fU5/m23sr. DNA of Australian tomato big bud (TBB) phytoplasma and SDW were used as positive and negative assay controls, respectively. Ten of fifteen plant samples collected in November tested positive for phytoplasma DNA. Restriction digestion profiles of nested PCR amplicons with HpaII endonuclease were the same for all symptomatic plants but differed from the control. Phytoplasma identity was determined by sequencing two nested PCR products that yielded identical sequences. One was deposited in the GenBank database (Accession No. DQ786394). BLAST analysis of the latter sequence revealed a >99.6% similarity with “Candidatus Phytoplasma australiense” (L76865) and related strains papaya dieback (Y10095), phormium yellow leaf (U43570), strawberry green petal (AJ243044), and strawberry lethal yellows (AJ243045). Direct PCR with primers FP 5′-GCATGTCGCGGTGAATAC-3′ and RY 5′-TGAGCTATAGGCCCTTAATC-3′ designed to specifically amplify DNA of “Ca. P. australiense” detected the phytoplasma in 8 of 40 samples collected in January. Whether this phytoplasma is the etiological agent solely responsible for ALuY is currently under investigation. “Ca. P. asteris” and stolbur group (16SrXII) phytoplasmas have been reported in lucerne in the United States (2) and Italy (1), respectively. Within the stolbur group 16SrXII, “Ca. P. australiense” and stolbur phytoplasma are regarded as separate species and both are distinct from “Ca. P. asteris”, a group 16SrI strain. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a “Ca. P. australiense” related strain in lucerne. References: (1) C. Marzachi et al. J. Plant Pathol. 82:201, 2000. (2) R. D. Peters et al. Plant Dis. 83:488, 1999. (3) L. J. Pilkington et al. Australas. Plant Pathol. 28:253, 1999. (4) L. J. Pilkington et al. First report of a phytoplasma associated with ‘Australian lucerne yellows’ disease. New Disease Report. Online publication at http://www.bspp.org.uk/ndr/jan2002/2001-46.asp .

Citrus huanglongbing (HLB), also known as citrus greening or citrus yellow shoot, is considered the most serious disease of citrus worldwide. The disease has Asian, African, and American forms caused by “Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus”, “Ca. L. africanus”, and “Ca. L. americanus”, respectively, which can be spread efficiently by the psyllid vectors Diaphorina citri and Trioza erytreae and through contaminated plant materials. Infected citrus groves are usually destroyed or become unproductive in 5 to 8 years. The presumed low concentration and uneven distribution of the pathogens in citrus plants and vector insects make the phloem-limited bacterium difficult to detect consistently. In this study, we compared and validated four conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based protocols, one loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) protocol, and three TaqMan real-time PCR protocols. The detection sensitivity of the validated conventional PCR assays reported are improved compared with the original protocols. All of the validated conventional and the newly developed real-time methods were reliable for confirmatory tests for the presence of “Ca. Liberibacter spp.” in symptomatic samples. There were no differences in assay specificity among the standard format PCR-based methods evaluated. The TaqMan real-time PCR was 10- to 100-fold more sensitive than conventional PCR and LAMP, showing the potential to become a valuable tool for early detection and identification of “Ca. Liberibacter spp.” prior to the appearance of disease symptoms. The methods validated in this study will be very useful for regulatory response, effective management of infected trees, and development of a “Ca. Liberibacter spp.”-free nursery system.

Huanglongbing (greening) disease caused by a nonculturable, phloem-limited bacterium is a severe disease of citrus. On the basis of the influence of temperature on host symptoms and the causal agent, this disease can be categorized as Asian caused by “Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus”, African caused by “Ca. L. africanus”, and American caused by “Ca. L. americanus”. Kumquat (Fortunella margarita (Lour.) Swingle), a member of the Rutaceae is an economically important crop for export and local consumption in Taiwan. Recently, a Huanglongbing-like disease was found on kumquat in Yilan County, the largest kumquat-producing area in northeastern Taiwan. Even though the disease has been reported on Citrus spp. from Taiwan, it has never been reported on kumquat. Symptoms of infected kumquat were mottling, yellowing, hardening, and curling of leaves followed by premature defoliation, twig dieback, decay of feeder rootlets and lateral roots, and ultimately the death of the entire plant. Typical sieve-tube-restricted bacteria were observed in kumquat cells by electron microscopy (1). In addition, psyllid-transmission tests demonstrated that the Asian psyllid (Diaphorina citri) could transmit this bacterium to healthy kumquats. Positive bud graft transmissions were obtained to F. margarita, F. japonica (Thunb.) Swingle, F. obovata Hort. ex Tanaka, Luchen sweet orange (Citrus sinensis (L.) Osb.), and Wentan pummelo (C. maxima f. sp. butan Hay.). These inoculated plants showed symptoms in 3 to 8 months, and bacteria could be detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using a common primer pair that amplified a 226-bp specific DNA fragment (2). For further molecular identification, the bacterial DNA was extracted from the inoculated plants and PCR was performed by using two sets of primers selected from the 16S rRNA region (GenBank Accession No. L22532) and 16S/23S intergenic spacer region (GenBank Accession No. AB019793). The expected DNA fragments of 1,389 bp and 862 bp were, respectively, amplified from symptomatic plants but not from healthy plants. The PCR products were cloned and sequenced (GenBank Accession Nos. DQ302750 and DQ207841). The 16S rRNA has 98 to 99% identity and 16S/23S intergenic spacer region has 99% identity to the corresponding region of “Ca. L. asiaticus” in GenBank. These molecular analyses confirm the presence of “Ca. L. asiaticus” in kumquat. Since Huanglongbing has been rarely reported naturally on kumquat, further analysis of this bacterium as a special strain of “Ca. L. asiaticus” is needed. References: (1) M. Garnier et al. Ann. Microbiol. 135A:169, 1984. (2) T. H. Hung et al. J. Phytopathol. 147:599, 1999.