Candidatus Phytoplasma trifolii Associated with Witches’ broom of Lespedeza cyrtobotrya M.

The Symptoms of witches’ broom disease caused by phytoplasma including general stunting and yellowing, were observed in leafy lespedeza (Lespedeza cyrtobotryaM.) on Doam-myeon, Pyeongchang-gun, in 2006. Based on the sequence analysis of PCR-amplified 16S ribosomalDNA and 16S-23S spacer region DNA products using universal phytoplasma primers, the phytoplasma as- sociated with leafy lespedeza witches’ broom (LLWB) disease was identified as a member of Candidatus Pyto- plasma trifolii. It was most closely related to alsike clover proliferation phytoplasma (99.8% similarity, acce- ssion no. AY390261), Candidatus Pytoplasma trifolii strain. RFLP patterns generated with Alu I, Hpa II clearly differentiated LLWB phytoplasma from the referenced phytoplasma strains, water dropwort witches’broom, mulberry dwarf, glehni aster yellow dwarf and jujube witches’ broom. This paper is the first report on Candidatus Phytoplasma trifolii in leafy lespedeza identified at a molecular level.