First Report of ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma asteris’ Related Strain Associated with Atractylodes lancea Malformations in Hubei Province of China

Abstract

HomePlant DiseaseVol. 102, No. 12First Report of ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma asteris’ Related Strain Associated with Atractylodes lancea Malformations in Hubei Province of China PreviousNext DISEASE NOTES OPENOpen Access licenseFirst Report of ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma asteris’ Related Strain Associated with Atractylodes lancea Malformations in Hubei Province of ChinaQ. Wan, L. Chen, S. Ming, L. Gong, X. Huang, K. Yu, H.-Y. Che, and D.-Q. LuoQ. WanSearch for more papers by this author, L. ChenSearch for more papers by this author, S. MingSearch for more papers by this author, L. GongSearch for more papers by this author, X. HuangSearch for more papers by this author, K. Yu†Corresponding author: K. Yu; E-mail: E-mail Address: [email protected]http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4262-4431Search for more papers by this author, H.-Y. Chehttp://orcid.org/0000-0002-9302-7784Search for more papers by this author, and D.-Q. LuoSearch for more papers by this authorAffiliationsAuthors and Affiliations Q. Wan L. Chen S. Ming L. Gong X. Huang K. Yu † , Hubei Key Laboratory of Resources and Chemistry of Chinese Medicine, College of Pharmacy, Hubei University of Chinese Medicine, Wuhan, China H.-Y. Che D.-Q. Luo , Environment and Plant Protection Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agriculture Science, Hainan, China. Published Online:10 Oct 2018https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-01-18-0177-PDNAboutSections ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailWechat Atractylodes lancea Thunb., a commercially cultivated plant in Hubei, Shanxi, and Henan Provinces, China, is well known for its extensive use in the practice of traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of various diseases (Huang et al. 2016). During the investigations conducted in April 2017 in Yingshan (30°30′ to 31°08′ N; 115°32′ to 116°04′ E), Hubei Province, 100 plants of A. lancea with symptoms including stem fasciation and proliferation were noticed across the five surveyed fields. Other symptoms including floral virescence and inflorescence abnormality were also observed. Stem tissues were sampled from six symptomatic and three asymptomatic A. lancea plants, and molecular diagnostics were employed to prove possible phytoplasma infections. Total DNA was extracted using the Plant Genomic DNA Kit (Tiangen, Beijing, China) following the manufacturer’s instructions, and nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed with P1/P7 followed by R16F2n/R16R2 primer pairs (Lee et al. 1998). A phytoplasma-specific gene fragment of approximately 1,200 base pairs (bp) was amplified from all symptomatic plants. In parallel diagnostic assays, no amplicons were generated from asymptomatic plants. The amplicon of approximately 1,200 bp of the second PCR product from symptomatic samples was purified, cloned into pMD-18T vector (Takara Bio, Dalian, China), and sequenced. The sequences obtained from all six symptomatic plants were identical, and one of them was deposited in the GenBank under accession number MG257945.3. An NCBI-BLAST search indicated that it shared 99.7% identity to the sesame phyllody phytoplasma (GenBank accession no. KF728953) from India. A phylogenetic tree of phytoplasma 16S rRNA gene sequences was constructed using a neighbor-joining algorithm, and it showed that A. lancea isolates clustered with the phytoplasma strains belonging to subgroup 16SrI-B (GenBank accession nos. MG652627 and KY565572). Restriction fragment length polymorphism analyses using iPhyClassifier (Zhao et al. 2009) placed the A. lancea phytoplasma strain in the 16SrI-B subgroup because the virtual pattern was identical (similarity coefficient 0.92) to the reference pattern of 16Sr group I, subgroup B (CP000061). Although ‘Ca. Phytoplasma asteris’ 16SrI-B subgroup has been identified in various hosts (Alvarez et al. 2014), to our knowledge, this is the first report of 16SrI-B subgroup phytoplasma infecting A. lancea in China. With its rapid and widespread characteristics, the identified phytoplasma strain could pose an imminent threat and cause economic loss to A. lancea cultivation. A. lancea is widely distributed and cultivated also in Japan and Thailand (Na-Bangchang and Karbwang 2014), and a phytoplasma, detected in China, could be a potential problem for all the region and seriously affect the production of rhizomes of A. lancea, which have a great pharmacological value worldwide.