First Report of ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma trifolii’-Related Strain (16SrVI-D Subgroup) Associated With Yellows Disease on Crape Jasmine (Tabernaemontana divaricate) From India

Abstract

Crape jasmine is a beautiful evergreen flowering shrub and is native to India. During a survey in 2025, severe yellowing symptoms with stunted growth of the plant was observed on the crap jasmine plant at Bhopal, Central India. For the identification of ‘Candidatus phytoplasma species’ on crap jasmine, symptomatic and asymptomatic leaf samples were collected and total DNA was extracted. The phytoplasma 16S rRNA gene was successfully amplified by direct and nested PCR using isolated DNA and phytoplasma-specific primers from three symptomatic plants. The amplified ~1.2 kb nested PCR products from three samples were sequenced, and the resulting 16S rRNA gene nucleotide sequences were submitted to GenBank under the accession numbers PX442245, PX890108 and PX890109. Sequence analysis of all three isolates (PX442245, PX890108 and PX890109) revealed the highest nucleotide sequence identity (99%) and close phylogenetic relationships with reference strains of brinjal little leaf phytoplasma, ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma trifolii’ (16SrVI group), predominantly belonging to the 16SrVI-D subgroup. In silico RFLP analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequences of the phytoplasma isolates under study showed the highest similarity to the reference strain of the 16SrVI-D subgroup, with similarity coefficients ranging from 0.93 to 0.86. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma trifolii’-related strain (16SrVI-D subgroup) associated with yellows disease of crape jasmine (Tabernaemontana divaricata) in India.