Detection of sugarcane grassy shoot phytoplasma (16SrXI-B subgroup) in Pyrilla perpusilla Walker in Uttar Pradesh, India

Heavy infestation of Pyrilla perpusilla was recorded in sugarcane fields on varieties Co0238, CoS767, CoS07250 infected with sugarcane grassy shoot (SCGS) disease showing white leaf symptoms at Shahjahanpur district of Uttar Pradesh. To confirm the possibility that P. perpusilla could carry SCGS phytoplasmas DNA was extracted from specimens collected from symptomatic sugarcane fields and from SCGS symptomatic leaf samples. PCR assay was performed with phytoplasma specific universal P1/P7 primers and nested PCR assay with 3for/3rev primers, which yielded about 1.3 kb amplicons in both the P. perpusilla and white leaf symptomatic samples. Phytoplasma amplicons from three samples each from P. perpusilla and SCGS samples were sequenced. After alignment, the obtained sequence were analyzed through pair wise comparison and showed 100% identity among themselves and 99% with strains of 16SrXI group. RFLP analysis assigned both the phytoplasma strains from P. perpusilla and SCGS to the 16SrXI-B subgroup. The study confirmed that P. perpusilla carry the same phytoplasmadetectedinSCGSplants thereforeitmayplay roleasvectorintransmissionof thesephytoplasmasinsugarcanecrops.