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Phytoplasma identification in pome fruit trees and Cacopsylla bidens (Hemiptera: Psyllidae) in Jordan

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Abstract

During field surveys conducted in 2021 in western Jordanian heights, phytoplasma-like symptoms were observed, including leaf reddening along with slow decline in pear (pear decline symptoms) and leaf yellowing followed by scorch in apple trees. Abundant populations of the psyllid Cacopsylla bidens were found in the pear trees. Nested PCR amplifying 16S rDNA detected phytoplasmas in 63% and 36% of symptomatic pear and apple samples, respectively, and in 46% of pooled C. bidens specimens. No phytoplasmas were detected in symptomless plant samples. PCR product nucleotide sequence analyses attributed the phytoplasmas detected in pear to ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma pyri’, ‘Ca. P. solani’, ‘Ca. P. omanense’, and ‘Ca. P. aurantifolia’, and those identified in apple to ‘Ca. P. solani’ and ‘Ca. P. omanense’. All phytoplasma strains identified in C. bidens were attributed to ‘Ca. P. pyri’. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of phytoplasmas associated with pear and apple diseases, including pear decline, in Jordan. Even though a limited number of pome fruit samples were analyzed, a surprising diversity was found among detected phytoplasmas. Further studies will be carried out to investigate the complex etiology of such diseases, and the ‘Ca. P. pyri’ vectoring activity of C. bidens.

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All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Drs. Amre AlMahasneh and Nizar Obeidat for their technical assistance, and all the Jordanian farmers for their cooperation.

Funding

No funding was received for conducting this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie e Ambientali, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy

    Asem Habes Abu Alloush, Piero Attilio Bianco & Fabio Quaglino

  2. National Agricultural Research Center (NARC), Amman, Jordan

    Asem Habes Abu Alloush

  3. Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie, Forestali e Alimentari, Università degli Studi di Torino, Turin, Italy

    Alberto Alma & Rosemarie Tedeschi

Authors
  1. Asem Habes Abu Alloush
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  2. Piero Attilio Bianco
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  3. Alberto Alma
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  4. Rosemarie Tedeschi
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  5. Fabio Quaglino
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Asem Abes Abu Alloush, Enrico Busato, Rosemarie Tedeschi, and Fabio Quaglino. Insects were identified by stereomicroscope observation at Department of Agriculture, Forest, and Food Science (DISAFA), University of Turin, Italy. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Asem Abes Abu Alloush and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fabio Quaglino.

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Alloush, A.H.A., Bianco, P.A., Alma, A. et al. Phytoplasma identification in pome fruit trees and Cacopsylla bidens (Hemiptera: Psyllidae) in Jordan. Eur J Plant Pathol (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10658-023-02808-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10658-023-02808-7

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