Multigene characterization of a 16SrII-D phytoplasma associated with sugarcane in Oman

Sugarcane is an economically important monocot plant belonging to Poaceae, the grass family. It is reported to develop sugarcane white leaf disease symptoms associated with phytoplasmas. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to amplify the 16S rRNA, tuf and imp genes of phytoplasmas applying direct and nested PCR techniques. The PCR assays from all symptomatic plants produced amplicons in both direct and nested reactions. Sequence homology results on BLAST and phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA, tuf and imp genes sequences indicate that the sugarcane phytoplasma from Oman is a member of the 16SrII-D subgroup that shares 100% sequence identity to ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma australasiae=austalasiaticum’. This is the first report of a phytoplasma from the 16SrII-D subgroup infecting sugarcane plants in the world.