GOPISETTY SANDHYA*, NEELATURU CHANDRASHEKAR MAMATHA, VASANTHU SRILATHA, PANYAM KARTHIK REDDY AND MADEM GURIVI REDDY

 Department of Plant Pathology, S.V. Agricultural College, ANGRAU, Tirupati-517502.

ABSTRACT

Brinjal little leaf (BLL) is a prevalent phytoplasma disease in India that induces severe economic losses every year. During

2021, symptoms of little leaf and witches’ broom were observed on brinjal plants grown in the horticultural fields of S. V. Agri- cultural College, Tirupati. Four symptomatic and two symptomless plants collected from the surveyed places were subjected to genomic DNA extraction and used as template in nested PCR assays with universal phytoplasma 16S rRNA primers, P1/P7 and R16F2n/R16R2. Amplification of ~1.25 kb product was obtained only from symptomatic BLL plants and the positive control, but not from any asymptomatic plants.

KEYWORDS: Eggplant/Brinjal, 16S rRNA, Nested PCR assay.