Sequence analyses of S10‐spc operon among 16SrV group phytoplasmas: phylogenetic relationships and identification of discriminating single nucleotide polymorphisms

• Published in: Annals of applied biology Vol. 161; no. 3; pp. 234 - 246
• Main Authors: Durante, G, Casati, P, Clair, D, Quaglino, F, Bulgari, D, Boudon‐Padieu, E, Bianco, P.A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.11.2012; Blackwell; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc; Wiley
• Subjects: amino acid sequences; Amino acids; bacteria; Bacterial plant pathogens; Biological and medical sciences; Evolution; Flavescence dorée; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Genes; grapevine yellows; group 16SrV; hosts; insect vectors; Life Sciences; Mollicutes; multilocus sequence typing; nucleotide sequences; operon; parasitism; Phylogenetics; phylogeny; Phytopathology. Animal pests. Plant and forest protection; ribosomal DNA; ribosomal protein genes; sequence analysis; single nucleotide polymorphism; Vegetal Biology; Vitaceae; Vitis; Plant pathogen; Vitis; grapevine yellows; Identification; ribosomal protein genes; Viticulture; Mollicutes; Gene; Vitidaceae; Dicotyledones; Angiospermae; Bacteria; Phytoplasma; Plant production; Typing; Operon; Phylogenetic tree; Ribosomal protein; Flavescence dorée; Infection; multilocus sequence typing; Discrimination; Applied biology; Fruit crop; Analysis; Liana; Spermatophyta; Single nucleotide polymorphism; group 16SrV; STRAINS; single nucleotide polymorphism; FINER DIFFERENTIATION; Flavescence doree; CLASSIFICATION; RIBOSOMAL-RNA; ELM YELLOWS; GENETIC DIVERSITY; NONRIBOSOMAL DNA; FLAVESCENCE-DOREE; SUBGROUP
• ISSN: 0003-4746; 1744-7348
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1744-7348.2012.00568.x

Phytoplasmas are cell‐wall less, uncultivable bacteria, belonging to the class Mollicutes. They parasitise both plant hosts and insect vectors, but knowledge of their biological and molecular properties is limited. In particular, analyses of 16S rDNA nucleotide sequences revealed that 16SrV group phytoplasma strains identified in grapevine plants are closely related, but associated with distinct ecologies. In this work, we investigated the evolutionary relationships of eight representative 16SrV phytoplasma strains by sequencing 15 ribosomal protein (rp) genes positioned within the S10‐spc operon. Phylogenetic analyses of concatenated nucleotide and amino acid sequences underscored that 16SrV phytoplasma strains infecting grapevine clustered together in a distinct clade, supporting the hypothesis that they have a probable common origin. Furthermore, sequence typing revealed the presence of single nucleotide polymorphisms distinguishing the analysed 16SrV phytoplasma strains. Moreover, rp gene nucleotide sequences could help the description and the accurate definition of ‘Candidatus’ species within the 16SrV group.