Full Length Research Paper

Molecular diagnostics and phylogenetic analysis of ‘Candidatus phytoplasma asteris’ (16SrI- Aster yellow group) infecting banana (Musa spp.)

Braj Raj Singh¹, Aminuddin³, Abdulaziz A. Al-Khedhairy¹, Fahad Al-Qurainy² and Javed Musarrat¹*

¹DNA Research Chair, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh-11451, Saudi Arabia.

²Department of Botany, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh-11451, Saudi Arabia.

³Molecular Virology Laboratory, National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow-226 001, India.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: musarratj1@yahoo.com. Tel: +966-4675768.

Fax: +966-4675514.

Accepted 21 September, 2009

   Abstract

The presence of phytoplasma in diseased banana plants exhibiting acute stunting symptoms was detected by the polymerase chain reaction using a primer set specific for the 16SrRNA gene of phytoplasma. The amplified DNA fragments of 1500 bp were cloned in pGEMT-Easy plasmid cloning vector and sequenced. The BLASTN and phylogenetic analyses revealed the infecting agents to be the closely related members of the ‘Candidatus phytoplasma asteris’ (16Sr I-Aster yellow) group.

Key words: Phytoplasma, polymerase chain reaction, cloning, 16SrDNA, banana, phylogenetic analysis.