Association of infected wild sour jujube Zizyphus spinosa Hu by phytoplasma with occurrence of cultivated Chinese jujube Zizyphus jujuba Mill witches’ broom disease
Abstract:To determine the relatedness of infected wild sour jujube Zizyphus spinosa Hu by phytoplasma with occurrence and epidemic of cultivated Chinese jujube Zizyphus jujuba Mill witches’ broom disease, the field survey, phytoplasmal detection and molecular characterization based on the conserved genes in jujube witches’ broom-occurring regions growing with wild sour jujubes, cultivated Chinese jujubes as well as grafted jujubes between wild sour and cultivated jujubes were carried out in China. The results showed that there existed a wide distribution of wild sour jujube witches’ broom disease and the disease incidences ranged from 0-40% in different regions of China. And the diseased wild sour jujubes distributed frequently in cluster, resulting from the transmission either through root sprouting or offspring seed-borne seedlings by insect vector. In jujube witches’ broom prevailing regions, the infected wild sour jujubes were generally contributed to the severity of the disease occurrence of nearby Chinese jujube orchards. The propagation way by grafting susceptible cultivated scions or phytoplasma-carrying Chinese jujube scions onto the wild jujube stocks standing in the field mostly was more likely to result in the occurrence and epidemic of newly-developed jujube orchard, whereas the application of resistant cultivars or lines such as cv. Hupingzao and JL24 of cv. Pozao could lead to the reduction of disease rate. The nested-PCR detection of phytoplasma indicated that the percentages of symptomless phytoplasma-carrying trees surrounding diseased ones were 10% to 32%. Comparative molecular analyses to the 16S rDNA, 16S-23S rDNA (SR), and ribosome protein gene (rp) sequences of phytoplasmas infecting both wild sour and Chinese jujubes showed that the phytoplasma infecting wild sour jujubes was identical to the one from the cultivated Chinese jujubes of different geographic regions.