DipSA, Plant Pathology, Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Italy
Online published on 29 January, 2013.
The presence of phytoplasmas in strawberry showing malformation of the fruits together with the typical green petals symptoms was detected in some North Western Italy cultivations. Nucleic acids extracted from these plants were used in nested-PCR assays with primers amplifying 16S rDNA and GroEL sequences specific for phytoplasmas. Bands of respectively 1.2 and 1.4 kb were obtained after nested-PCR assays and RFLP analyses allowed to classify the detected phytoplasmas in the aster yellows subgroup 16SrI-C, the GroELI grouping confirms that all the strains from strawberry were identical to each other and are affiliated to GroELI-VII group. This is the first GroEL gene characterization of strawberry green petals phytoplasmas.
Identification, polymerase chain reaction, restriction fragment length polymorphism, strawberry green petals
