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1 UMR GDPP, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique BP 81, 33883 Villenave d’Ornon cedex, France
2 Lebanese Agricultural Research Institute, Tal Amara, Rayak, Zahle, PO Box 287, Lebanon
Correspondence
Monique Garnier
garnier{at}bordeaux.inra.fr
Almonds (Prunus amygdalus) represent an important crop in most Mediterranean countries. A new and devastating disease of almond trees in Lebanon was recently reported, characterized by the development of severe witches’-brooms on which no flowers or fruits developed, and leading to tree death within a few years. A phytoplasma was detected in diseased trees by PCR amplification of rRNA operon sequences, and RFLP patterns of amplified DNA indicated that the phytoplasma belonged to the pigeon pea witches’-broom (PPWB) group. In the present work, the presence of a phytoplasma in symptomatic plants was confirmed by electron microscopy; this phytoplasma was graft-transmissible to almond, plum and peach seedlings. The phytoplasma was characterized by sequence analysis of rRNA genes and was shown to be different from the phytoplasmas previously described in the PPWB group. A 16S rDNA phylogenetic tree identified the almond tree phytoplasma as a member of a distinct subclade of the class Mollicutes. Oligonucleotides have been defined for specific detection of the new phytoplasma. The almond phytoplasma from Lebanon was shown to be identical to a phytoplasma that induces a disease called ‘almond brooming’ in Iran, but different from another PPWB-group phytoplasma that infects herbaceous annual plants in Lebanon. Based on its unique properties, the name ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma phoenicium’ is proposed for the phytoplasma associated with almond witches’-broom in Lebanon and Iran.
Published online ahead of print on 25 October 2002 as DOI 10.1099/ijs.0.02453-0.
The GenBank accession numbers for the 16S rDNA and 16S–23S spacer sequences of ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma phoenicium’ are AF515636 and AF515637 for the Lebanese and Iranian almond isolates, respectively. The accession number for the 16S rDNA and 16S–23S spacer sequence of the wild lettuce (Lactuca serriola) and Madagascar periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus) phytoplasma is AF515638.
Two supplementary figures showing PCR amplification profiles are available in IJSEM Online.
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