Molecular Detection and Identification of Group 16SrI and 16SrXII Phytoplasmas Associated with Diseased Potatoes in Russia.

Phytoplasmal diseases have long been suspected to occur in several potato-growing regions in Russia on the basis of symptoms and the presence of insect vectors. Symptoms resembling stolbur are most prevalent, but round leaf disease, potato witches'-broom, and potato purple top wilt also occur (1). The phytoplasma etiologies of these diseases have never been verified by molecular means. During the summer of 2006, 33 potato plants exhibiting various symptoms including purple top, round leaves, and stolbur-like symptoms characterized by purple top, stunting, bud proliferation, and formation of aerial tubers were randomly collected from the Volga River Region, Central Region, and Northern Caucasian Region in Russia. DNA extracts were prepared from 1.0 g of petioles and leaf mid veins according to a modified procedure with the Qiagen DNeasy Plant Mini Kit (Qiagen, Valencia, CA) as previously described (2). A nested PCR with primer pair P1/P7 in the first amplification followed by R16F2n/R16R2n in the second amplification was performed to detect phytoplasmas in infected potato samples (4). Potato plants maintained in the greenhouse were used as healthy controls. A negative control devoid of DNA templates was included in all PCR assays. One microliter of diluted (1:30) PCR product from the first amplification was used as the template in the nested PCR. Eight of 33 potato samples tested positive in the first PCR. Twelve of 33 potato samples tested positive in nested PCR. Nine of the 12 potato samples that tested positive for phytoplasma exhibited stolbur-like symptoms; the other three samples exhibited round leaves, stunting, or proliferation. The remaining symptomatic samples that exhibited nonspecific purple or yellow discoloration of terminal leaves, without other specific stolbur-like symptoms, may be infected by other pathogens. Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of nested PCR products (R16F2n/R16R2n amplicons, 1.2 kb) was performed. PCR products (6 μl) were digested singly with the restriction enzymes AluI, HaeIII, HhaI, HpaII, KpnI, MseI, RsaI, and Tsp509I. Comparison of RFLP profiles with published profiles (3) was used for identification of the putative phytoplasmas detected. Among the 12 PCR positive potato samples, 10 showed very similar or identical RFLP profiles to stolbur phytoplasma, a strain belonging to stolbur phytoplasma group (16Sr XII), subgroup 16SrXII-A and closely related strains, and two showed RFLP profiles similar to those of aster yellows phytoplasma group (16SrI). Nucleotide sequence analysis of cloned 16S rDNA (GenBank Accession Nos. EU344884-EU344890 and EU333396-EU333400) confirmed the results of the RFLP analyses and also indicated that the two samples showing 16SrI profiles were simultaneously infected with two phytoplasma strains belonging to subgroups 16SrI-A and 16SrI-B. To our knowledge, this is the first confirmation by molecular procedures that stolbur phytoplasma (16SrXII-A) is prevalent in several potato-growing regions and is the first report of 16SrI-A and 16SrI-B phytoplasmas associated with potatoes in Russia. References: (1) D. Z. Bogoutdinov. Potato Phytoplasmas and Methods of Their Study. Samara State Agricultural University, Samara, 2000. (2) M. J. Green et al. Plant Dis. 83:482, 1999. (3) I.-M. Lee et al. Int. J. Syst. Bacteriol. 48:1153, 1998. (4) I.-M. Lee et al. Plant Dis. 90:989, 2006.