Popis: |
In 2012, yellowing of camellias was observed in Tai'an in Shandong province, China. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed phytoplasma in the phloem sieve tube elements of symptomatic plants. A specific fragment of phytoplasma 16S rRNA gene was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using the universal phytoplasma primers P1/P7 followed by R16F2n/R16R2. Sequence and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analyses allowed us to classify the detected phytoplasma into the elm yellows (EY) group (16SrV), subgroup 16SrV-B. Sequence analyses of the ribosomal protein (rp) gene confirmed a close relationship with phytoplasmas belonging to the rpV-C subgroup. Thus, the phytoplasma associated with yellows disease in camellia, designated as ‘CY’, is a member of the 16SrV-B subgroup. This is the first report of phytoplasma associated with camellia. |