Current Status of Phytoplasma Diseases in the Vineyards of Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia Regions

Surveys were carried out between 2013-2021 to determine the status of phytoplasma agents in the vineyard areas of Adıyaman, Batman, Elazığ, Malatya, Mardin, Şanlıurfa and Diyarbakır provinces located in the Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia Regions. As a result of the surveys carried out according to the guided sampling method, a total of 1110 plant samples were collected. Rapid diagnosis of the collected samples was performed by Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) analysis to determine the presence of the associated phytoplasma. Based on qPCR analysis, phytoplasma was detected in 2 samples, one in a sample from Elazig and the other in a sample from Mardin. Nested Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (Nested qPCR) analyzes were performed using the universal primers R16mF2/R16mR1 and R16F2n/R16R2 for the identification of the detected positive samples and bands of 1.25 kb were obtained. BLAST and virtual RFLP analyzes were applied to the 1.25 kb amplification products obtained from the 16S rDNA region of the phytoplasma samples. BLAST analysis of the 16SrDNA sequences and virtual computer-simulated restriction fragment length polymorphism (virtual RFLP) analyses confirmed the presence of ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma solani’ (16Sr group XII, subgroup A) in 2 grapevine samples (OM212474 ve OM909048). In the BLAST comparison of 16S rDNA sequences of phytoplasma isolates, it was determined that there was a 99-100% similarity with other phytoplasma isolates in the world.