Identification And Characterization Of Phytoplasmas Infecting Medicinal Plants

Abstract

Phytoplasmas are important group of pathogens which drastically damage growth and marketing parameters of Medicinal plants and affect their commercial value During survey of Dehradun Uttarakhand Amity University campus at Manesar Haryana Eastern Uttar Pradesh Gorakhpur India from 2012 2016 symptoms including extensive yellowing Chlorosis phyllody little leaves and witches broom were observed on Cannabis sativa ssp Sativa. Tylophora asthmatica, Catharanthus roseus and Streblus asper Presence of phytoplasmas was confirmed in all the four medicinal plants by nested PCR assays one point two kb amplicons was obtained using universal primer pairs on symptomatic medicinal plants On the basis of BLAST analysis and phylogenetic study it was found that the three symptomatic medicinal plants viz Cannabis sativa Catharanthus roseus and Streblus asper are closely related to the asteris group of phytoplasma While the Tylophora asthmatica shows close affinity to the group newline