Back to Search Start Over

Nested Real-Time PCR Assessment of Vertical Transmission of Sandalwood Spike Phytoplasma (‘Ca. Phytoplasma asteris’)

Authors :
Kiran Kirdat
Bhavesh Tiwarekar
Purushotham Swetha
Sodaliyandi Padma
Vipool Thorat
Kathiruguppe Nagappa Manjula
Narayan Kavya
Ramachandran Sundararaj
Amit Yadav
Source :
Biology, Vol 11, Iss 10, p 1494 (2022)
Publication Year :
2022
Publisher :
MDPI AG, 2022.

Abstract

The Sandalwood Spike disease (SSD)-related to ‘Ca. Phytoplasma asteris’ has threatened the existence of sandalwood in India. The epidemiology of SSD is still poorly understood despite the efforts to understand the involvement of insect vectors in SSD transmission and alternate plant hosts over the last two decades. Apart from the transmission of SSD phytoplasma through insect vectors, the information on vertical transmission is entirely unknown. Over 200 seeds from SSD-affected trees and over 500 seedlings generated using commercially purchased seeds were screened for the presence of SSD phytoplasma to understand the vertical transmission in an insect-free environment. The end-point nested PCR and real-time nested PCR-based screening revealed an alarming rate of 38.66% and 23.23% phytoplasma positivity in one-month and four-month-old seedlings, respectively. These results were further validated by visualizing the phytoplasma bodies in sandalwood tissues using scanning electron microscopy. The presence of phytoplasma DNA in the seeds and seedlings is a concern for the commercial distribution of sandalwood seedlings in the current setup. This also poses a fear of spreading the disease to newer areas and negatively affecting the economy. The seedling mortality was also suspected to be associated with isolated bacterial and fungal isolates such as Erwinia, Curtobacterium, Pseudomonas, Rhodococcus, Aspergillus, Fusarium, and Neofusicoccum isolated using a culture-dependent approach. These findings strongly recommend the accreditation of commercial production of sandalwood seedlings curtailing SSD phytoplasma’s menace. Additionally, a new nested end-point and qRT PCR assays developed in this study proved valuable for the rapid screening of phytoplasma in many plant samples to detect phytoplasmas.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
20797737
Volume :
11
Issue :
10
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
Biology
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.8bd4aa38345493b8e37592fe05ee5fc
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3390/biology11101494