Detection of 16SrII-D phytoplasmas associated with tomato little leaf in Eastern Uttar Pradesh

During field surveys in Rajahi village, Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh little leaf symptoms were noticed in cultivated tomato varieties with an incidence of 3–5%. With PCR and nested PCR assays using phytoplasma-specific primer pairs P1/P7 and R16F2n/R16R2, 1.2 kb amplicons were obtained and in symptomatic samples phytoplasma presence was confirmed. in silico RFLP analysis of the 16Sr RNA sequence directed its assignment to the 16SrII-D subgroup. This is the first report of tomato little leaf disease from Eastern Uttar Pradesh confirming the widespread and increased incidence of phytoplasma diseases in the tomato growing areas of the Country causing severe yield loss.