Preliminary investigation and detection based on loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) of phytoplasmas associated with diseases in B. napus L.

In the last decade, some disease occurred on our experimental farms that had caused serious losses. They were not caused by fungi, bacteria or viruses. By loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) technique, the detection results pointed to the possible pathogen as phytoplasma. The investigation results implied that phytoplasmas could cause more than 13 kinds of symptoms in almost all parts of plants in B. napus L., including witches’ broom, multi-stems, aggregate main inflorescences, and flat stems. The incidences of these phytoplasma-associated diseases in our experimental farms rose from 1.61% in 2010 to 6.00% in 2021. Some phytoplasma infected plants died without any growing points. These studies would be helpful for detecting phytoplasmas diseases, selecting disease resistant germplasm and improving varieties with disease resistances in B. napus L.