1National Pulses Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Vamban-622303, Tamil Nadu, India
2Department of Plant Pathology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore641003, Tamil Nadu, India
*Corresponding author e-mail: Ramjegathesh Rajendran (ramjegathesh@hotmail.com)
Online published on 25 August, 2022.
Ashwagandha is a native medicinal plant of Indian sub-continent grown in different parts of the world for its medicinal value. The little leaf symptoms were observed in ashwagandha plants in Tamil Nadu, India. The nested PCR with the primer pair fU5/rU3, amplified 890 bp fragment of the 16S rRNA region of phytoplasma from five symptomatic leaf samples of ashwagandha plants. The nucleotide sequence analysis of 16S rRNA region revealed that the sequences of the five samples were identical and confirmed 99% nucleotide sequence identity with 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequences of ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma asteris’. This result indicate the presence of aster yellows phytoplasmas in this plants from South India.
16S rRNA gene, Ashwagandha, Little leaf, Nested PCR, Phytoplasma
