Identification of a new strain of ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma cynodontis’ associated with white leaf disease of Bermudagrass in Central India

Bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon) is an invasive weed severely infected by Bermudagrass white leaf (BGWL) phytoplasma disease worldwide. During a survey in April 2025, Bermudagrass samples exhibiting white leaf symptoms were collected from Madhya Pradesh, Central India. The total DNA was extracted from symptomatic and asymptomatic leaf samples by a CTAB method and nested PCR assay was performed using universal primers for phytoplasma detection targeting 16S rRNA gene. Resulting amplicons (about 1.2 kb) were purified, sequenced and submitted to GenBank under accession numbers PX442054-PX442057. The sequence analysis revealed about 99% sequence identities and close phylogenetic relationships with ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma cynodontis’ (16SrXIV-A subgroup). The iPhyClassifier RFLP analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that these strains had a similarity coefficient of 0.85 to 0.89 to the reference strain of the phytoplasmas in the subgroup 16SrXIV-A suggesting that it may be a new lineage of ‘Ca. P. cynodontis’ which needs further confirmation.