Detection and identification of phytoplasmas in yellows-diseased weeds in Italy

Yellows-diseased plants of Crepis setosa (hawksbeard), Knautia arvensis (field scabious), Convolvulus arvensis (field bindweed), Picris echioides (bristly oxtongue), Echium vulgare (blueweed) and Calendula officinalis (pot marigold) collected in central and southern Italy were examined for phytoplasma infection by means of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology using universal phytoplasma primers directed to ribosomal sequences. The detected phytoplasmas were characterized and differentiated using restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of PCR-amplified DNA. The phytoplasma detected in diseased pot marigold plants was identified as a member of the aster yellows group and proved indistinguishable from a strain of the American aster yellows phytoplasma. The phytoplasma identified in diseased field bindweed plants is a putative new type of the stolbur group that differed from the typical stolbur phytoplasma. Phytoplasmas detected in diseased hawksbeard, blueweed and field scabious plants are all putative new members of the sugarcane white leaf group while the phytoplasma detected in diseased bristly oxtongue plants represents a new member of the faba bean phyllody group. For hawksbeard and field scabious this is the first report on the occurrence of phytoplasma diseases, whereas phytoplasmas infecting bristly oxtongue and blueweed have never been characterized before.