Association of ‘Candidatus phytoplasma asteris’ (16SrI group) with chlorosis and little leaf disease of Streblus asper

During survey in the year 2010, chlorosis and little leaf symptoms were observed on Streblus asper plants growing in different gardens and nurseries of Gorakhpur, Eastern U.P., India. The phytoplasma suspected symptomatic sample was collected and analyzed for phytoplasma association through PCR assays. The DNA extracted from symptomatic Strebulus asper sample produced amplicon of ∼1.2 kb in nested PCR assay expected for the presence of phytoplasmas. The amplicon of ∼1.2 kb was sequenced and the consensus sequence obtained was submitted to GenBank Acc. no. HM230687. BLAST analysis of 16Sr DNA sequence of S. asper revealed the highest identity (99%) with identified members of 16SrI ‘Ca. Phytoplasma asteris’ group. Phylogenetic analysis further identified that S. asper phytoplasma clustered with members of ‘Ca. P. asteris’ group. Hence, it was confirmed that the chlorosis and little leaf disease of S. asper plant in the study belonged to 16Sr I group. To our knowledge this is the first report of a ‘Ca. Phytoplasma asteris’ isolate associated with chlorosis and little leaf disease of Streblus asper plant in the world.