1Department of Plant Protection, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Mashhad, PO 91735-488, Iran
2Dip SA, Plant Pathology, Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, viale G. Fanin, 42, Bologna, Italy
3Plant Protection Administration of Agricultural, Jehad Organization of Razavi-Khorassan, Mashhad, PO 91735-484, Iran
4Khalilabad Agricultural Jehad Administration, Khalilabad, PO 96771–17589, Iran
*Corresponding author e-mail: Mahmoud Reza Karimi, karimi_in@yahoo.com; mrkarimi@iripp.ir
Online published on 13 January, 2016.
Samples from pomegranate trees were collected from cultivations in Khalilabad and Bardaskan (Razavi-Khorassan province, Iran) during summer 2015. The symptomatic plants showed slow decline during one or more years with areduction in yield and fruit size and yellowing of the leaves, and/or reddening with thickening of veins. Finally the treesshowed general dieback. After nucleic acid extraction and PCR/RFLP analyses of 16S ribosomal gene followed by sequencing and phylogenetic analyses a phytoplasma related with ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma pruni’ was identified in the symptomatic samples. The epidemiologic importance of this new phytoplasma-associated in diseased pomegranate in Iran should be further studied to establish control strategies and avoid dissemination of this phytoplasma for the first time reported in the Country.
disease, phytoplasma, PCR/RFLP analyses, 16SrIII, pomegranate, decline
