Molecular identification of a ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma cynodontis’ strain associated with yellow disease of Chrysanthemum morifolium in Central India

Chrysanthemum morifolium is a popular ornamental plant of economic importance and its production is widely affected by phytoplasma-associated diseases. During a survey in April 2025, severe yellowing symptoms with stunted growth of the plants were observed in C. morifolium plants at Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh, India. Symptomatic and asymptomatic leaf samples were collected and total DNA was extracted. The phytoplasma 16S rRNA gene was successfully amplified by PCR with phytoplasma-specific primers from three symptomatic plants. One of the amplified 1.2 kb nested PCR product was sequenced, and the resulting 16S rRNA gene nucleotide sequence was submitted to NCBI GenBank under the accession number PX442058. Sequence analysis revealed 98.86% nucleotide sequence identity and close phylogenetic relationships with ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma cynodontis’ (16SrXIV group). In silico RFLP analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence showed a similarity coefficients of 0.91 to the reference strain of the XIV-A subgroup. This is the first report of a ‘Ca. P. cynodontis’ strain in C. morifolium from Madhya Pradesh, Central India.