Molecular characterization of a phytoplasma associated with grassy shoot disease of sugarcane in india

Detection of sugarcane grassy shoot phytoplasma infecting sugarcane in India and its phylogenetic relationships to closely related phytoplasmas

“…However, inoculation experiments need to be carried out in order to prove definitively the pathological role of low-titer phytoplasma infections, in sugarcane. Although there are a few reports on detection of phytoplasmal infections in SCGS-affected sugarcane plants in India with PCR-based methods (Rao et al, 2003;Viswanathan et al, 2005;Srivastava et al, 2006), the extensive survey of phytoplasmal infections in sugarcane plants collected in several sugarcane-growing areas of India using PCR assays as well as detection of phytoplasmal infections in nonsymptomatic sugarcane plants and/or in sugarcanes with nonspecific symptoms had previously not been reported. Also, the phylogenetic relationships of SCGS phytoplasma strains to each other and to other closely related phytoplasmas, at both 16S rRNA gene and 16S/23S rDNA spacer region sequence levels were examined for the first time in the present work.…”