First Report of 'Candidatus Phytoplasma rubi' Associated with Rubus Stunt Disease of Raspberry and Blackberry in the Czech Republic

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F60077344%3A_____%2F23%3A00584402" target="_blank" >RIV/60077344:_____/23:00584402 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/10.1094/PDIS-03-23-0467-PDN" target="_blank" >https://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/10.1094/PDIS-03-23-0467-PDN</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

First Report of 'Candidatus Phytoplasma rubi' Associated with Rubus Stunt Disease of Raspberry and Blackberry in the Czech Republic

Original language description

Raspberries (Rubus idaeus L.), occurring in the temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere, and blackberries (R. fruticosus L.), cultivated and growing all over the world, are plant species of the family Rosaceae. These species are susceptible to phytoplasma infections, which cause Rubus stunt disease. It spreads uncontrollably by vegetative propagation of plants (Linck and Reineke 2019a) and by phloem-sucking insect vectors, especially Macropsis fuscula (Hemiptera, Cicadellidae) (de Fluiter and van der Meer 1953, Linck and Reineke 2019b). During a survey in a commercial field in June 2021, over 200 raspberry bushes cultivar Enrosadira exhibiting typical symptoms of Rubus stunt were observed in Central Bohemia. Symptoms included dieback, leaf yellowing or reddening, stunted growth, severe phyllody, and fruit malformations. Most diseased plants were growing in the edge rows of the field (about 80%). No symptomatic plants were observed in the middle of the field. Similar symptoms were observed in private gardens in South Bohemia on raspberry cultivar Rutrago and blackberry (unknown cultivar) in June 2018 and August 2022, respectively. DNA was extracted using the DNeasy Plant Mini Kit (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany) from flower stems and parts affected by phyllody of seven symptomatic plants as well as flower stems, leaf midribs, and petioles of five asymptomatic field plants. The DNA extracts were analyzed by a nested polymerase chain reaction assay using the universal phytoplasma P1A/P7A primers followed by R16F2m/R1m and the group-specific R16(V)F1/R1 primers (Bertaccini et al. 2019). All samples from the symptomatic plants yielded an amplicon of the expected size, whereas no product was amplified in the asymptomatic plants. The P1A/P7A amplicons from three selected plants (two raspberries and one blackberry, each from a different location) were cloned and bidirectionally Sanger sequenced (GenBank accession nos. OQ520100 to OQ520102). The sequences spanned nearly the full length of the 16S rRNA gene, the 16S-23S rRNA intergenic spacer, the tRNA-Ile gene, and a partial 23S rRNA gene. A BLASTn search revealed the highest sequence identity (99.8 to 99.9%, 100% query coverage) to the 'Candidatus Phytoplasma rubi' strain RS (GenBank accession no. CP114006). To further characterize the 'Ca. P. rubi' strains, all three samples were subjected to multigene sequence analysis. Sequences from a major portion of the tuf, rplV-rpsC, rpsH-rplR, uvrB-degV, and rplO-SecY-map genes (accession nos. OQ506112 to OQ506126) were obtained as described previously (Fránová et al. 2016). Comparison with GenBank sequences confirmed their highest identity (99.6 to 100%, 100% query coverage) with the 'Ca. P. rubi' RS strain, regardless of their geographic location and host (raspberry or blackberry). Recently, Bertaccini et al. (2022) suggested the 98.65% 'Ca. Phytoplasma' strain identity threshold within 16Sr RNA sequences. In this survey, all three strains sequenced shared ≥99.73% sequence identity to the analyzed 16S rRNA gene sequences and high identity in the other genes with the reference 'Ca. P. rubi' RS strain. To our knowledge, this is the first report of Rubus stunt disease in the Czech Republic as well as the first molecular identification and characterization of 'Ca. P. rubi' from raspberry and blackberry in our country. As Rubus stunt disease is of great economic importance (Linck and Reineke 2019a), the pathogen detection and prompt removal of the diseased shrubs are essential to mitigating the spread and impact of the disease.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

O - Miscellaneous

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

10606 - Microbiology

Project

<a href="/en/project/TO01000295" target="_blank" >TO01000295: Healthy berries in a changing climate: development of new biotechnological procedures for virus diagnostics, vector studies, elimination and safe preservation of strawberry and raspberry</a><br>

Continuities

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Publication year

2023

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů