New Disease Reports (2015) 32, 5. [http://dx.doi.org/10.5197/j.2044-0588.2015.032.005]
Get pdf (608 KB)

First report of a 16SrVI group related phytoplasma associated with cucumber phyllody in a greenhouse in Iran

S.A. Esmailzadeh Hosseini 1*, M. Salehi 2, S.M. Mirchenari 1, D. Tarizeh 1 and H. Gholampoor 1

*saesmailzadeh@iripp.ir

Show affiliations

Received: 03 Jul 2015; Published: 03 Aug 2015

Keywords: Yazd province, 16SrVI phytoplasma

Greenhouse cucumber (Cucumis sativus) is one of the most economically important vegetable crops in Iran. In September 2014, an outbreak of phyllody disease was observed in up to 82% of greenhouse cucumber in cultivars Keyhan and Negin in Nasr Abad (Taft, Yazd province). Symptoms were characterised by flower virescence, phyllody and sterility (Fig.1). Total DNA was extracted from 0.2 g of fresh phyllody-affected flowers and from symptomless cucumber plants (Zhang et al., 1998). DNA samples were tested for phytoplasma by direct and nested PCR using the phytoplasma primers P1/P7 (Deng & Hiruki, 1991; Schneider et al., 1995) followed by R16F2n/R16R2 (Gundersen & Lee, 1996). Primer pair P1/P7 amplifies an 1800 bp fragment of the phytoplasma ribosomal operon which includes the 16SrRNA gene, the 16S-23S intergenic spacer region (SR) and a portion of the 5′ region of the 23S rRNA gene. R16F2n/R16R2 primer pair amplifies about 1250 bp of the phytoplasma 16S rRNA gene. PCR amplicons of ~1.8 and ~1.25 kbp were obtained from symptom-bearing, but not from symptomless greenhouse cucumber plants. 

Seven R16F2nR16R2 amplicons from infected areas in Nasr Abad were directly sequenced. The R16F2n/R16R2 sequences shared 100% sequence identity. A consensus sequence corresponding to the Saleh Abad (Nasr Abad, Taft, Yazd province) greenhouse cucumber phyllody (SGCP) was deposited in GenBank (Accession No. KR633068). BLAST search showed that the SGCP phytoplasma had the highest sequence identity with those of the 16SrVI ('Candidatus Phytoplasma trifolii') phytoplasma group. Phylogenetic analysis (MEGA software version 6.0) confirmed that the SGCP phytoplasma clustered within the 16SrVI phytoplasma clade (Fig. 2). R16F2n/R16R2 SGCP phytoplasma sequence computer-simulated restriction analysis (Fig.3) with restriction endonucleases AluI, BamHI, BfaI, BstUI, DraI, EcoRI, HaeIII, HhaI, HinfI, HpaI, HpaII, KpnI, Sau3AI, MseI, RsaI, SspI and TaqI using iPhyclassifier (Zhao et. al., 2009) revealed that virtual RFLP patterns of the SGCP  phytoplasma differ from those previously recorded 16SrVI subgroups (A, B, C, D, E, F, H, I). Although the SGCP phytoplasma RFLP profiles were more similar to those of subgroup A (AY390261), it showed a similarity coefficient of 0.93; which suggests that the SGCP phytoplasma may represent a new subgroup within the 16SrVI phytoplasma group. This is the first report of the association of a 16SrVI phytoplasma with cucumber phyllody disease in a greenhouse in Iran. A 16SrII phytoplasma ('Ca. P. aurantifolia') was associated with cucumber phyllody in a greenhouse of the Fars province (Dehghan et al., 2014). Therefore the SGCP phytoplasma may represent a new epidemiological constraint for the development of the phyllody disease in greenhouses in Iran.

Figure1+
Figure 1: Symptoms of flower virescence, phyllody and sterility in a phyllody-affected greenhouse cucumber plant in Saleh Abad (Nasr Abad, Taft, Yazd province).
Figure 1: Symptoms of flower virescence, phyllody and sterility in a phyllody-affected greenhouse cucumber plant in Saleh Abad (Nasr Abad, Taft, Yazd province).
Figure2+
Figure 2: Neighbour-joining phylogenetic tree based on the 1250 bp16S rDNA sequence of the SGCP phytoplasma and those reference phytoplasmas from GenBank. Acholeplasma laidlawii was used as an out group. GenBank accession numbers are shown in parentheses. Numbers on branches are bootstrap values of 1000 replicates. 'Ca. P.' stands for 'Candidatus Phytoplasma species'.
Figure 2: Neighbour-joining phylogenetic tree based on the 1250 bp16S rDNA sequence of the SGCP phytoplasma and those reference phytoplasmas from GenBank. Acholeplasma laidlawii was used as an out group. GenBank accession numbers are shown in parentheses. Numbers on branches are bootstrap values of 1000 replicates. 'Ca. P.' stands for 'Candidatus Phytoplasma species'.
Figure3+
Figure 3: AluI, BamHI, BfaI, BstUI, DraI, EcoRI, HaeIII, HhaI, HinfI, HpaI, HpaII, KpnI, Sau3AI, MseI, RsaI, SspI and TaqI virtual RFLP profiles from the R16F2n/R16R2 sequence of the SGCP phytoplasma.
Figure 3: AluI, BamHI, BfaI, BstUI, DraI, EcoRI, HaeIII, HhaI, HinfI, HpaI, HpaII, KpnI, Sau3AI, MseI, RsaI, SspI and TaqI virtual RFLP profiles from the R16F2n/R16R2 sequence of the SGCP phytoplasma.

References

  1. Dehghan H, Salehi M, Khanchezar A, Afshar H, 2014. Biological and molecular characterization of a phytoplasma associated with greenhouse cucumber phyllody in Fars province. Iranian Journal of Plant Pathology 50, 393-401 [in Persian; abstract in English 185-186].
  2. Deng S, Hiruki C, 1991. Amplification of 16 S rRNA genes from culturable and non-culturable mollicutes. Journal of Microbiological Methods 14, 53–61. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0167-7012(91)90007-D]
  3. Gundersen DE, Lee IM, 1996. Ultrasensitive detection of phytoplasmas by nested-PCR assays using two universal primer sets. Phytopathologia Mediterranea 35, 144-151.
  4. Schneider B, Seemüller E, Smart CD, Kirkpatrick BC, 1995. Phylogenetic classification of plant pathogenic mycoplasma-like organisms or phytoplasmas. In: Razin S, Tully JG, eds. Molecular and Diagnostic Procedures in Mycoplasmology, Vol.1. Academic Press, San Diego, CA, USA, 369-380. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-012583805-4/50040-6 ]
  5. Zhang YP, Uyemoto JK, Kirkpatrick BC, 1998. A small-scale procedure for extracting nucleic acids from woody plants infected with various phytoplasmas for PCR assay. Journal of Virological Methods 71, 45-50. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0166-0934(97)00190-0]
  6. Zhao Y, Wei W, Lee IM, Shao J, Suo X, Davis RE, 2009. Construction of an interactive online phytoplasma classification tool, iPhyClassifier, and its application in analysis of the peach X-disease phytoplasma group (16SrIII). International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology 59, 2582–2593. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1099/ijs.0.010249-0]

To cite this report: Esmailzadeh Hosseini SA, Salehi M, Mirchenari SM, Tarizeh D, Gholampoor H, 2015. First report of a 16SrVI group related phytoplasma associated with cucumber phyllody in a greenhouse in Iran. New Disease Reports 32, 5. [http://dx.doi.org/10.5197/j.2044-0588.2015.032.005]

©2015 The Authors