Phytoplasma diseases of vegetable crops in Russia

Abstract

Phytoplasma DNA was detected in 72 samples of vegetable crops collected in eight regions/territories of the Russian Federation, including the Republic of Crimea. The analyzed plants belonged to 13 species (Armoracia rusticana, Artemisia dracunculus, Capsicum annuum, Conundrum sátivum, Cucumis melo, Cucurbita maxima, Daucus carota var.sativus, Melissa officinalis, Petroselinum crispum, Phaseolus vulgaris, Solanum lycopersicum, Solanum melongena and Vicia faba), to 7 families (Apiacea, Asteracea, Brassicaceae, Cucurbitaceae, Fabaceae, Lamiaceae and Solanaceae). The belonging of phytoplasma to a group/subgroup was established by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of amplicons obtained in nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR). We identified phytoplasmas of four groups most characteristic of the Russian Federation: Aster yellows - 16SrI, X-disease - 16SrIII, Clover proliferation - 16SrVI and Stolbur - 16SrXII. All phytoplasmas isolated from plants collected in the southern regions of the Russian Federation (Astrakhan and Rostov regions, Krasnodar Territory, and the Republic of Crimea) belonged to stolbur group, subgroup 16SrXII-A, like most phytoplasmas from plants of the Samara region. Phytoplasmas of the 16SrVI group were found in plants from the Moscow, Samara, and Novosibirsk regions, the 16SrIII group - in plants from the Vologda and Moscow regions, and the 16SrI group - only in samples from the Moscow region.