Abstract
SPIKE disease of Sandal (Santalum album L.) is of considerable importance to the sandal-wood industry of southern India1,2. It has been considered for many years that this disease is caused by a virus3 and its transmission by grafting3,4, by haustoria of sandal3, by the leafhopper Jassus indicus (Walk)5 and by sap inoculation6 has been reported. Sandal spike disease has several symptoms7 which resemble those of the “yellows” group of plant diseases: there is a reduction in leaf size, loss of apical dominance of the branches giving a “witches-broom” condition and phyllody of the flowers. Because many of the “yellows” group of diseases are now attributed to infection by mycoplasma-like organisms8–17, spike-infected sandal was examined for the presence of such bodies. This communication reports the presence of mycoplasma-like structures associated with sandal spike infection and compares their morphology with known mycoplasmas.
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