Molecular characterization of group 16SrI and 16SrIII phytoplasmas associated with loofah witches’ broom disease in Sinaloa, Mexico

María Elena Santos-Cervantes, Jesús Enrique Camacho-Bojórquez, Ulises Rosario Escobedo-Rivera, Jesús Méndez-Lozano, Norma Elena Leyva-López

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    1 Scopus citations

    Abstract

    Loofah [Luffa acutangula (L.) Roxb.] is grown in some regions of Asia, Africa and the Americas. This vegetable is well known for its high nutritional and medicinal value. Loofah plants showing typical symptoms of phytoplasma infection, such as witches’ broom, fruit deformation, flower proliferation and phyllody were observed in a commercial field in Sinaloa, Mexico, in January 2015. Nineteen symptomatic loofah plants and seven asymptomatic weeds (Helianthus annuus, Sarcostemma sp., Chenopodium sp., Amaranthus palmeri, Rumex sp., Ambrosia sp., and Raphanus sp.) growing nearby were collected and analyzed by phytoplasma-specific nested PCR. Phytoplasmas were detected in 79% of symptomatic loofah plants and in two of the seven weeds. Conventional and virtual restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analyses of the 16S rRNA-encoding gene sequences indicated the presence of strains of the 16SrIII and 16SrI phytoplasma groups in loofah, which occurred as both single and mixed infections. The phylogenetic analysis confirmed four new phytoplasma strains associated with loofah diseases, two ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma asteris’-related strains (16SrI-AG and 16SrI-AH), and two ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma pruni’-related strains (16SrIII-AA, and 16SrIII-AB). Furthermore, phytoplasmas belonging to groups 16SrI and 16SrIII also were identified in the weeds H. annuus and A. palmeri, respectively; 16SrIII-AC represents a new phytoplasma subgroup described in A. palmeri in Sinaloa. To our knowledge, this is the first report of loofah disease associated with phytoplasmas belonging to the 16SrI and 16SrIII groups in Mexico.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)366-373
    Number of pages8
    JournalCanadian Journal of Plant Pathology
    Volume43
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    StateAccepted/In press - 2020

    Keywords

    • 16SrI
    • 16SrIII
    • Luffa acutangula
    • phytoplasma classification
    • witches’ broom disease

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