FIRST REPORT OF ‘CANDIDATUS PHYTOPLASMA SOLANI’ IN PEPPER AND CELERY IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Abstract

In August 2015, in Bijeljina (Semberija province of Bosnia and Herzegovina) pepper and celery plants were surveyed for phytoplasma infections. During the survey pepper plants (Capsicum annuum ) of cvs Fortesa, Niska Sipka and Amanda showing stunting and leaf yellowing were observed, while celery plants (Apium graveolens L.) variety ‘Giant Prague’, expressed leaf whitening and stunting; the percentages of symptomatic plants ranged from 20 to 30%, respectively. Leaf samples from symptomatic and asymptomatic plants were tested to verify phytoplasma presence using nested-PCR/RFLP analyses. Results of 16S rDNA RFLP analyses with Tru1I and tuf typing using HpaII (Langer and Maixner, 2004) indicated the presence of a ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma solani’-related strain in all the symptomatic samples tested. There was no variability in the tuf gene and only tuf-type b was detected. Four symptomatic pepper and two celery samples were selected for further characterization amplifying vmp1 and stamp genes (Fialova et al., 2009; Fabre et al., 2011). The nucleotide sequences of the obtained amplicons were submitted to GenBank (accession Nos. KU340846-51 and KU295501-06 for vmp1 and stamp sequences, respectively). Homology with ‘Ca. P. solani’ sequences from database was 96- 100% for the vmp1 and 99-100% for the stamp gene. Combined RFLP analyses using Tru1I and Hpy188I on stamp and RsaI on vmp1 genes distinguished four ‘Ca. P. solani’ lineages indicating the presence of genetic variability among the phytoplasmas studied. This is the first report of ‘Ca. P. solani’ presence in symptomatic pepper and celery in Bosnia and Herzegovina.