First report of a 16SrII‐V phytoplasma associated with peanut phyllody in India

Peanut (Arachis hypogaea, Fabaceae), also known as groundnut, is an important oilseed and food legume crop cultivated in a wide range of climatic conditions across the globe. India second largest producer peanut world after China (Food Agriculture Organization United Nations, 2022). plants exhibiting phyllody, little leaf, excessive shoot proliferation, negative geotropism pegs with absence pod formation were observed February 2021 Pune, Maharashtra, (Figures 1, 2). The diseased could be easily identified field due to their distinct appearance, suggestive presence phytoplasma. Eight fields surveyed overall average disease incidence was four percent. Ten asymptomatic sampled identify characterise associated DNA extracted from leaf petioles (100 mg) using DNeasy® Plant Mini Kit (Qiagen, Germany). subjected PCR P1/P7 universal primers (Deng & Hiruki, 1991; Schneider et al., 1995). Products first round used nested R16F2n/R2 (Gundersen Lee, 1996). Amplicons expected size, c. 1.8 kb 1.2 obtained all samples assay, respectively. No amplification recorded samples. sequences products identical each other sequence deposited GenBank (Accession No. ON139214). A BLASTn search showed more than 99% identity phytoplasma including witches’-broom (JN681274; L33765), Desmodium ovalifolium (MK956144), soybean (MW115943) cowpea phyllody (MZ831318). clustered selected belonging 16SrII group following phylogenetic analysis neighbour-joining method (MEGA X program) (Figure 3). Virtual RFLP iPhyClassifier (https://plantpathology.ba.ars.usda.gov/) demonstrated that affiliated 16SrII, subgroup V. Phytoplasmas 16SrII-V have been recently reported infect legumes such mungbean Taiwan (Chen 2021; Wang 2021). To our knowledge, this report well occurrence India. finding epidemiological importance infection reduces leading yield economic losses for farmers. Moreover, infected serve natural reservoirs aiding its spread legume, vegetable flower crops vicinity. authors thank Director, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi Head, RS, Pune providing lab facilities.