Characterisation of phytoplasma (16SrVI) associated with little leaf disease of Portulaca grandiflora – An in silico analysis

Abstract

A new severe little leaf disease was observed on P. grandiflora, popular as Moss-rose Purslane, widely grown in temperate zones. Characteristic symptoms, ultrastructural studies, antibiotic response and amplification of 16S ribosomal DNA fragments (about 1.5 kb) by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) from infected samples, suspect the involvement of phytoplasma as a pathogen. Nested PCR product, 1.2 kb, with primer pairs R16F2n/R16R2 used for cloning and sequencing. Comparision of the 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that the causal, PLL phytoplasma, is very close (98%) to Indian brinjal little leaf (EF186820) and “Candidatus Phytoplasma trifolii” (AY390261), 16SrVI group phytoplasmas, previously reported from India and Canada respectively. Here, the status of PLL (EF651786) is verified by computer-simulated restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of 16S rRNA genes of the F2n/R2 sequences of closely related strains of the 16SrVI group using 17 restriction enzymes.