Determination of plant pathogenic phytoplasma agents causing diseases in tomato production areas in Adana province and evaluation of their phylogenetic relationships

There are many agents that cause significant yield and quality losses in tomato plant cultivation worldwide. Phytoplasma is one of these disease agents, cause serious yield losses as an important pathogen. In addition, tomato plants act as intermediate hosts for phytoplasma agents and constitute a pathogen source for phytoplasmas that may cause infection in other crop plants. The research was carried out to determine the plant pathogenic phytoplasma agents that cause diseases in tomato production areas of Adana province and to reveal their phylogenetic relationships. On the other hand, it was aimed to reveal the phylogenetic relationship of the determined agent with other Ca. Phytoplasma isolates in the world. For these purposes, tomato plants were examined symptomatically in the closed and open production areas where the study was conducted. In the surveys, yellowing, reddening, leaf deformations, plant dieback, stunting, and wrinkled fruit symptoms were observed in leaves suspected to be caused by phytoplasma. The focus was on plants showing symptoms and samples were collected from these plants. In addition, samples were taken from healthy plants. DNA was isolated from the midrib and stems of the plants collected as a result of symptom-focused surveys and brought to the laboratory to be used as material in molecular analyses. The presence of phytoplasma in the obtained DNA mixture was checked by direct and nested PCR (polymerase chain reaction) studies performed in two stages using universal primers. Comparison and phylogenetic analyses performed by obtaining DNA sequences of nested PCR products revealed that there was a phytoplasma related to Candidatus phytoplasma trifolii in symptomatic tomato plants in the study areas. Subgroup analyses of the isolate detected within the scope of this study were also presented with In-slico RFLP. This study is the first study to reveal the presence of phytoplasmas in tomato production areas in Adana. Keywords: Tomato, Phytoplasma, 16SrDNA, Phylogenetic relationship, RFLP