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BERMUDA GRASS WIDTE LEAF CAUSED BY PHYTOPLASMAS IN PAKISTAN

ZAHOOR AHMAD, M. BASHIR, KAZUO NAKASHIMA*, TAKAO MITSUEDA AND NOBOU MURATA

Abstract: Bennuda grass (Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers.) is widely distributed in Pakistan. The lawn grass at the Plant Genetic Resources Institute (PGRI) at National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC), Islamabad showed white leaf symptoms of chlorosis and adventitious branching in patches which some people related to nutritional deficiency. To identify the causal organism the diseased and apparently healthy leaves were collected and to determine the involvement of Phytoplasmas DNA was extracted from the leaves using technique as described by Nakashima et al., (1991). The extracted DNA was sent to Japan International Research Centre for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS) for the assay based on Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) amplification. The DNA of clean Bennuda grass grown in Japan and that of white leaf infected grass from Thailand, were included in the assay as references. The DNA assay was carried out using the primer (universal set) developed by Namba et al., (1993) which amplifies a segment of 16S rRNA gene specific to Mollecutes.

Plant Genetic Resources Institute, National Agricultural Research Centre, Islamabad, Pakistan.
Biological Resources Division, Japan International Centre For Agricultural Sciences, Tsukuba, Japan