An update status of coinfection of phytoplasmas with other pathogensin plants Mall Smriti*, Vishwakarma Ragini Molecular Plant Pathology Laboratory, Department of Botany, DDU Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur-273009, Uttar Pradesh, India *Corresponding author e-mail: Smriti Mall (smriti.mall@rediffmail.com)
Online Published on 11 January, 2024. Abstract Phytoplasmas are obligate phytopathogenic bacteria lacking cell-wall. They are associated with a diversified range of plant diseases throughout the world leading to significant damage to thousands of plant species including economically important crops, horticulture crops, woody trees. They have the smallest genome among all known living microorganisms and are inhabiting the phloem sieve elements of infected plants. Phytoplasmas are transmitted to healthy host plants by phloem-feeding insects, grafting, vegetative propagation and in a few cases by seeds. Mixed infection of viruses and other plant pathogens such as phytoplasmas has been reported in a wide range of plant species showing that both the plant pathogens can infect same host. There are various examples of plants where mixed infection can be observed such as bunchy top disease of banana showing little leaf symptom in which both the Banana bunchy top virus and phytoplasmas were detected. The mixed infection of 16SrVI phytoplasmas and Begomovirus in eggplants was associated with yellows symptoms; yellow midrib symptom in sugarcane due to Sugarcane yellow leaf virus and sugarcane grassy shoot phytoplasmas, leads to high yield loss in crop plants as compared to infection by one of the two agents alone. This review provides a detailed account about the coexistence of phytoplasmas and viruses in disease development. Top Keywords Diseases, Virus, Yield loss, Symptoms, Epidemiology, Identification. Top |