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Jingxin Zhang

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Jul 2026

First Report of a ‘ Candidatus Phytoplasma australasiaticum’ Strain Associated with Bamboo Witches’ Broom Disease in Guangdong, China

Bambusa multiplex, one of the most acclimatized clumping-bamboo species, has been broadly cultivated in China and has significant economical, ecological and ornamental importance (Yuan et al. 2009). In November 2025, more than 30% of B. multiplex plants exhibiting typical witches’ broom, internode shortening, leaf proliferation and clustering of leaves were observed in a horticultural landscaping field in Zhangjiang city, Guangdong Province, China. To confirm the presence of a phytoplasma, total DNA was extracted from fresh leaves of ten symptomatic and four asymptomatic plants using the CTAB method. Conventional nested PCR was performed using primer pairs P1/P7 followed by R16F2n/R16R2 (Gundersen and Lee, 1996), and expected fragment amplified only from the symptomatic plants. The PCR products were sequenced, and deposited in GenBank under the accession number PX998769. BLAST analysis revealed that the sequence shared 99.60% identity with that of the SPLL subgroup reference strain ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma australasiaticum subsp. Ipomoeae’ o7C (GenBank accession no. GCA_024425275.1, 1,244/1,249 bp) (Rodrigues Jardim et al. 2023). Further virtual RFLP pattern analysis of the 16S rRNA sequence by iPhyClassifier (Zhao et al. 2009) verified that the phytoplasma strain, designated as BMW-ZJ, was a member of the 16SrII-A subgroup with a 1.00 similarity coefficient to the reference phytoplasma strain (GenBank accession no. L33765). Moreover, the secY gene was amplified using primer pairs secYwbF1/secYwbR1 followed by secYwbF2/secYwbR2 (Wang et al. 2025), and the sequence(GenBank accession no. PZ135411) shared 100% identity to several ‘Ca. P. australasiaticum’ strains (NTU2011, BAWM-TWN and BAWM-THA-CLP). Phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA and secY genes conducted by MEGA 12 (Kumar et al. 2024), confirmed that BMW-ZJ was related to ‘Ca. P. australasiaticum’(Bertaccini et al. 2022; Rodrigues Jardim et al. 2023). Earlier, 16SrII phytoplasma associated with bamboo species Dendrocalamus giganteus (Che et al. 2024), and 16SrI phytoplasma associated with Sasa fortunei (Zhang et al. 2009) were reported in Hainan and Shaanxi Province, China, respectively. To our knowledge, this is the first report a ‘Ca. P. australasiaticum’ -related strain associated with Bamboo Witches’ Broom Disease (BWB) in Guangdong, China. The BWB caused by Ca. Phytoplasma (16SrI, 16SrII, 16SrVIII and 16SrXIV group), has been confirmed in several bamboo species in Southeast Asian countries such as India (Yadav et al. 2016; Ravi et al. 2022), Philippines (Dolores et al. 2023), Indonesia (Prasetya et al. 2020) and China (Zhang et al. 2009; Che et al. 2024). This study highlight the need to identify insect vectors and alternative hosts, which will provide theoretical guide to the control of Bamboo Witches’ Broom Disease.

Dayuan Sun, Chun-Yan Fan, Pingping Liu et al. · 0 citations
Jul 2026

Pectobacterium aroidearum as a Causative Agent of Potato Soft Rot in China: Virulence Characterization and a Type 1 Fimbriae Cluster Contributing to Pathogenicity.

Soft rot Pectobacteriaceae (SRP) are destructive pathogens of potato crops, posing a global threat to food security. SRP populations exhibit significant genetic heterogeneity, with the prevalence of potato-infecting species shifting over time. In this study, we identified Pectobacterium aroidearum as a novel agent causing severe tuber soft rot in winter-planted potatoes in Guangdong Province, where it co-occurred with P. brasiliense and P. carotovorum. However, the pathogenic potential of P. aroidearum has been largely uncharacterized. Here, comparative virulence assays demonstrated that P. aroidearum is more aggressive than its counterparts. This heightened virulence was linked to enhanced pathogenic traits, including plant cell wall-degrading enzymes (PCWDEs) production, swimming motility, exopolysaccharide (EPS) production, and air-liquid (AL) biofilm formation. Genomic analysis revealed that while core virulence genes are conserved, a type 1 fimbriae-encoding fim cluster is unique to P. aroidearum. Deletion of fimA, fimC, fimD, and fimH impaired bacterial adhesion, EPS production, AL biofilm formation, and full virulence, functionally characterizing this distinctive factor. Genes within the bacterial cellulose synthesis operon were significantly down-regulated across fim mutants. Accordingly, the mutant colonies showed a marked decrease in calcofluor binding compared with the wild-type strain. Genes with significant up-regulation in the mutants were primarily involved in responses to extracellular stimuli. These findings indicate that the fim cluster underpins the threat posed by this emerging pathogen, which warrants increased attention in disease management. The considerable genetic diversity and frequent gene flow among P. aroidearum isolates from various hosts further highlight its epidemiological risk.

Guoling Chen, Xiaoting Yin, Huifang Shen et al. · 0 citations