Identification of “stolbur” phytoplasmas in tomato in Moldova

Phytoplasmas infect a wide variety of crops, causing considerable economic losses. In a number of countries in Europe and Middle East, located relatively not far to Moldova, phytoplasmas belonging to the 16SrXII (“stolbur”) group are widespread. “Stolbur” symptoms were observed in 2018 and 2019 during August in tomato plants in the experimental plots of Institute of Genetics, Physiology and Plant Protection, Chisinau, Moldova. DNA was extracted from symptomatic tomato plants and nested PCR assay with P1/P7 and R16F2n/R2 primers was carried out to confirm ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma solani’ presence. The obtained product was purified by agarose gel extraction, sequenced, and compared with phytoplasma sequences available in GenBank. The result of comparison showed 100% nucleotide sequence identity with a number of ‘Ca. P. solani’ strains deposited in GenBank and represents the first molecular identification of the phytoplasma in tomato in Moldova.