Archivio Journal of Plant Pathology

Abstract:

The first survey on the occurrence of ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma prunorum’, the etiological agent of European stone fruit yellows (ESFY), on stone fruit trees was conducted in Belarus in autumn 2014 when apricot trees in the experimental field of the Institute for Fruit Growing in Samochvalovichi showed leaf yellowing and rolling with early leaf shedding. In one of the six symptomatic apricot trees examined, phytoplasmas were detected using an universal 16S rDNA based PCR assay. Apricot is not common in Belarus and the origin of infection was unclear. A potential source of local ‘Ca. P. prunorum’ strains is blackthorn (Prunus spinosa), which is an asymptomatic natural host for the pathogen. Roots from three randomly selected blackthorn trees growing next to the apricot orchard were tested and two of them were found to be infected. Phytoplasma species were identified by sequence analysis of the 16S rDNA amplicons which confirmed that apricot and blackthorn trees were infected by ‘Ca. P. prunorum’. To further characterize the Belarusian ‘Ca. P. prunorum’ accessions for strain diversity their imp and hflB genes were examined. This is the first report on the occurrence and molecular diversity of ‘Ca. P. prunorum’ in apricot and blackthorn plants in Belarus.