The Abstract:

In October 2008, coconut plantations in the villages of Tobenam, Pupun and Dugumor, located in the Bogia district of the Madang Province in Papua New Guinea (PNG), exhibited lethal yellowing-like symptoms in both newly planted and old palms. Symptoms started with premature nut fall, followed by leaf yellowing and collapse of the crown leading to the death of the plant. Inflorescence necrosis, a symptom frequently linked with lethal yellowing (LY), was absent. The disease spread rapidly from neighboring affected palms, and farmers have reported losses totaling over 5000 trees in the Bogia district.

http://www.ndrs.org.uk/article.php?id=023009

Later, it was reported that the phytoplasma is not identical to the lethal yellowing pathogen in Jamaica, and it was speculated that the vector may be different too. A ‘more local comparison’ was said to be with Natuna wilt or Kalimantan Wilt in Indonesia.

First report of a phytoplasma identified in coconut palms (Cocos nucifera) with lethal yellowing-like symptoms in Papua New Guinea

P.L. Kelly¹*, R. Reeder¹, P. Kokoa², Y. Arocha¹, T. Nixon³ and A. Fox³

¹ Global Plant Clinic, CABI, Bakeham Lane, Egham, Surrey, TW20 9TY, United Kingdom
² Plant Protection Office, PO Box 741, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
³ FERA, Sand Hutton, York, YO41 1LZ, United Kingdom

*[email protected]

Received: 14 Jan 2010; Published: 04 Feb 2011

Keywords: PNG, Oceania, LY, palms

In October 2008, coconut plantations in the villages of Tobenam, Pupun and Dugumor, located in the Bogia district of the Madang Province in Papua New Guinea (PNG), exhibited lethal yellowing-like symptoms in both newly planted and old palms. Symptoms started with premature nut fall, followed by leaf yellowing and collapse of the crown leading to the death of the plant. Inflorescence necrosis, a symptom frequently linked with lethal yellowing (LY), was absent. The disease spread rapidly from neighboring affected palms, and farmers have reported losses totaling over 5000 trees in the Bogia district.

Apical buds of eight affected coconuts were collected and sent to the Global Plant Clinic, UK, for testing using real-time PCR (TaqMan^??) and generic primers that target the phytoplasma 16S rDNA (Hodgetts et al., 2009). Three samples tested positive and were further analyzed using conventional nested PCR with universal 16S rRNA phytoplasma primers P1/P7-R16F2n/R2 (Deng & Hiruki, 1991; Schneider et al., 1995; Gundersen & Lee, 1996). All three samples yielded amplicons of expected size (~1250 bp). One of the amplicons was selected for purification and its partial 16S rDNA sequence was deposited in GenBank (Accession No. GQ227853). BLAST comparisons showed that the partial 16S rDNA sequence of the LY-PNG phytoplasma matched most closely (96%) with members of group 16SrIV, Coconut lethal yellowing (CLY). Phylogenetic analysis supported BLAST comparisons since the LY-PNG phytoplasma clustered as a single distinct branch related to group 16SrIV (Fig. 1). CLY has previously been reported from the Americas and Caribbean. Other closely related lethal yellowing-like diseases have also been recorded from West Africa (Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Cameroon), East Africa (Tanzania, Kenya, Mozambique) and the Far East (Kalimantan, India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Malaysia) (Eden-Green, 1997). However, this is the first report of the presence of a lethal yellowing-like disease of coconut in Oceania. Coconut is a very important crop for the coastal and island regions of PNG with exports of copra and coconut oil bringing in US$27 million and US$43 million per year. The discovery of a LY phytoplasma has important implications for the coconut industry as the experience in Jamaica suggests that the disease is capable of destroying almost the entire population of susceptible palms (EPPO/CABI, 1997).

Figure 1: Phylogenetic relationships between the LY-PNG phytoplasma, selected phytoplasmas of group 16SrIV, and other phytoplasmas of reference from GenBank. Acholeplasma palmae was used to root the tree. CLY: coconut lethal yellowing phytoplasma; LD: lethal decline phytoplasma; trP: Thrinax radiata phytoplasma; SMD: Sabal mexicana decline phytoplasma; DP: date palm phytoplasma; SP: sabal palm phytoplasma; PP: Phoenix palm phytoplasma; PD: Pandanus decline phytoplasma; CLD: coconut lethal decline phytoplasma; CPLY: Carludovica palmata leaf yellowing phytoplasma; CPD: coyol palm decline phytoplasma; PSY: Pseudophoenix sargentii yellowing phytoplasma; CLY-BCT-C6: coconut lethal yellowing phytoplasma strain BCT-C6; CYD: coconut yellow decline phytoplasma The 0.01 bar indicates one nucleotide change per 100 nucleotides.

References

Deng S, Hiruki C, 1991. Amplification of 16S rRNA genes from culturable and non-culturable mollicutes. Journal of Microbiological Methods 14, 53-61. [doi:10.1016/0167-7012(91)90007-D]

Eden-Green, SJ, 1997. History, world distribution and present status of lethal yellowing-like diseases of palms. In: Eden-Green SJ, Ofori F, eds. Proceedings of an International Workshop on Lethal Yellowing-like Diseases of Coconut, 1995. Elmina, Ghana. Chatham, UK: Natural Resources Institute, 9-25.

EPPO/CABI, 1997. Palm lethal yellowing phytoplasma. In: Smith IM, McNamara DG, Scott PR, Holderness M, eds. Quarantine Pests for Europe. 2nd edition. Wallingford, UK: CABI, 745-748.

Gundersen DE, Lee I-M, 1996. Ultrasensitive detection of phytoplasmas by nested-PCR assays using two universal primer pairs. Phytopathologia Mediterranea 35, 144-151.

Hodgetts J, Boonham N, Mumford R, Dickinson M, 2009. Panel of 23S rRNA gene-based real-time PCR assays for improved universal and group-specific detection of phytoplasmas. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 75, 2945-2950. [doi:10.1128/AEM.02610-08]

Schneider B, Seem??ller E, Smart CD, Kirkpatrick BC, 1995. Phylogenetic classification of plant pathogenic mycoplasma-like organisms or phytoplasmas. In: Razin S, Tully JG, eds. Molecular and Diagnostic Procedures in Mycoplasmology, Vol. 1. New York, USA: Academic Press, 369-380.

To cite this report:

Kelly PL, Reeder R, Kokoa P, Arocha Y, Nixon T, Fox A, 2011. First report of a phytoplasma identified in coconut palms (Cocos nucifera) with lethal yellowing-like symptoms in Papua New Guinea. New Disease Reports 23, 9. [doi:10.5197/j.2044-0588.2011.023.009]

??2011 The Authors

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