Vol. 11, Special Issue 9 (2022)

Author(s):
Priya Y Gawande, Dr. M Karthikeyan, Dr. I Johnson, Dr. R Swarnapriya and Dr. N Manikanda Boopathi

Abstract:
Phytoplasma is one of the devastating pathogens responsible for significant crop losses in eggplant globally that causes little leaf of brinjal. This study focuses on survey, disease incidence and molecular characterization of BLL (Brinjal little leaf) phytoplasma. In 2021-2022, surveys were carried out in nine districts of Tamil Nadu where brinjal is grown, and 9 BLL samples were collected for phytoplasma identification. Disease incidence is calculated on the basis of symptoms exhibited by phytoplasma infected plant in three seasons. Collected samples exhibited little leaf, phyllody, and witches' broom symptoms. Coimbatore region showed highest disease incidence (Kharif- 32.40%, Rabi- 27.56%, Summer- 35.16%) and Tenkasi with lowest (Kharif- 17.42%, Rabi- 17.02%, Summer- 19.33%). Phytoplasma-specific primer pairs P1/P6 (amplify 16S rRNA region) R16F2n/R16R2 (amplify internal region of the 16S rRNA region) were used in the nested PCR to detect and characterize the of phytoplasmas present in each of the nine BLL samples. Sequence analysis discovered that the Candidatus Phytoplasma trifolii was associated with BLL with 98.54% percent and identity, with other isolates.