“Candidatus Phytoplasma trifolii” associated with little leaf disease of Solanum melongena (Brinjal) in Andhra Pradesh, India

Abstract

Solanum melongena is a major cultivated vegetable crop in India, phytoplasma disease symptoms like little leaf was observed on brinjal at farmer field, Tirupati area. The DNA was isolated from phytoplasma infected leaf samples and also from healthy leaf samples used as a control. The extracted DNA was amplified in PCR by using phytoplasma specific primers P1/P7 followed by R16F2n/R16R2. The PCR amplified 1250 bp product eluted from agarose gel were directly cloned in TA cloning vector pTZ57R/T. The phytoplasma clones of 1250bp were sequenced at automated DNA sequencing facility (Eurofin Genomics India Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore) and the sequence was submitted to GenBank (KP899062). BLAST analysis of the partial 16S rDNA sequence of the Solanum melongena phytoplasma revealed the highest sequence identity (95%) with phytoplasmas of the 16SrVI group “Candidatus Phytoplasma trifolii”, including the Phytoplasma associated with brinjal from Nagpur (KX588712).