Detection, Identification and Molecular Characterization of the 16SrII-V Subgroup Phytoplasma Strain Associated with Pisum sativum and Parthenium hysterophorus L

Yi-Ching Chiu; Pei-Qing Liao; Helen Mae Mejia; Ya-Chien Lee; Yuh-Kun Chen; Jun-Yi Yang

doi:10.3390/plants12040891

Detection, Identification and Molecular Characterization of the 16SrII-V Subgroup Phytoplasma Strain Associated with Pisum sativum and Parthenium hysterophorus L

Plants (Basel). 2023 Feb 16;12(4):891. doi: 10.3390/plants12040891.

Authors

Yi-Ching Chiu^{1

2}, Pei-Qing Liao¹, Helen Mae Mejia¹, Ya-Chien Lee¹, Yuh-Kun Chen³, Jun-Yi Yang^{1

2

4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Biochemistry, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 402, Taiwan.
² PhD Program in Microbial Genomics, National Chung Hsing University and Academia Sinica, Taichung 402, Taiwan.
³ Department of Plant Pathology, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 402, Taiwan.
⁴ Institute of Biotechnology, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 402, Taiwan.
⁵ Advanced Plant Biotechnology Center, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 402, Taiwan.

Abstract

Two unrelated plant species, green pea and parthenium weed, harboring typical phytoplasma symptoms, were discovered in Yunlin, Taiwan. Green pea (Pisum sativum.) and parthenium weed (Parthenium hysterophorus L.) are both herbaceous annual plants belonging to the Fabaceae and Asteraceae families, respectively. Displayed symptoms were witches' broom, phyllody and virescence, which are typical indications of phytoplasma infection. Pleomorphic phytoplasma-like bodies were observed under the transmission electron microscope in the sieve elements of symptomatic green pea and parthenium weed. The iPhyClassifier-based virtual RFLP study demonstrated that the phytoplasma associated with the diseased plants belongs to the 16SrII-V subgroup. The disease symptoms of both plants can be explained by the identification of PHYL1 and SAP11 effectors, identical to those of peanut witches' broom phytoplasma. The phytoplasma strains identified in this study present a very close phylogenetic relationship with other 16SrII-V subgroup phytoplasma strains discovered in Taiwan. These results not only convey the local status of the 16SrII-V subgroup phytoplasma strains but also encourage attention to be given to preventing the spread of this threat before it becomes pervasive.

Keywords: Parthenium hysterophorus L.; Pisum sativum; phyllody; phytoplasma; virescence; witches’ broom.

Grants and funding

This work was financially supported in part by grants-in-aid from the National Science and Technology Council (111-2811-B-005-008) and the Advanced Plant Biotechnology Center from the Featured Areas Research Center Program within the framework of the Higher Education Sprout Project by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Taiwan.