Publications

4544

‘Candidatus Phytoplasma prunorum’ is causing ever increasing economic losses through the decline of apricot trees in European countries, e.g., Hungary. In this study, the pathogen was identified from plant tissues and insects by nested-PCR. The insect species were identified via morphology and molecular methods. The incidence of the pathogen was 29.6% in randomly selected apricot trees. Most of the infected trees with symptoms died within a year. These results show that phytoplasma is significantly present and causes damage in the investigated plantations. The only known insect vector of this phytoplasma is the plum psyllid, Cacopsylla pruni, which was regularly encountered in the sampled apricot orchards and in their surroundings. In a two-year study, several adults among the sampled specimens were observed to be infected by the pathogen. This observation further confirms the role of the plum psyllid in vectoring the phytoplasma. All the sampled plum psyllid adults belonged to the ‘B’ biotype. Besides C. pruni, Cacopsylla crataegi was abundant in the samples. Several adults of the latter species were also infected by the pathogen ‘Ca. Phytoplasma prunorum’. The rates of occurrence of this phytoplasma in male and female adults of the two psyllid species appeared to be similar. The examined C. crataegi individuals showed genetic differences from each other and from specimens included in a previous investigation.

‘Candidatus Phytoplasma mali’ (‘Ca. P. mali’) has only one major membrane protein, the immunodominant membrane protein (Imp), which is regarded as being close to the ancestor of all phytoplasma immunodominant membrane proteins. Imp binds to actin and possibly facilitates its movement in the plant or insect host cells. However, protein sequences of Imp are quite diverse among phytoplasma species, thus resulting in difficulties in identifying conserved domains across species. In this work, we compare Imp protein sequences of ‘Ca. P. mali’ strain PM19 (Imp-PM19) with Imp of different strains of ‘Ca. P. mali’ and identify its actin-binding domain. Moreover, we show that Imp binds to the actin of apple (Malus x domestica), which is the host plant of ‘Ca. P. mali’. Using molecular and scanning force spectroscopy analysis, we find that the actin-binding domain of Imp-PM19 contains a highly positively charged amino acid cluster. Our result could allow investigating a possible correlation between Imp variants and the infectivity of the corresponding ‘Ca. P. mali’ isolates.

The family Anaplasmataceae includes tick-borne bacteria of major public and veterinary health interest, as best illustrated by members of the genera Anaplasma and Ehrlichia. Recent epidemiological surveys have also reported on the presence of a novel putative genus in the Anaplasmataceae, Candidatus Allocryptoplasma, previously described as Candidatus Cryptoplasma in the western black-legged tick, Ixodes pacificus. However, the genetic diversity of Ca. Allocryptoplasma and its phylogenetic relationship with other Anaplasmataceae remain unclear. In this study, we developed a multi-locus sequence typing approach, examining the DNA sequence variation at five genes of Ca. Allocryptoplasma found in ticks. Combining this multi-locus sequence typing and genetic data available on public databases, we found that substantial genetic diversity of Ca. Allocryptoplasma is present in Ixodes, Amblyomma and Haemaphysalis spp. ticks on most continents. Further analyses confirmed that the Ca. Allocryptoplasma of ticks, the Ca. Allocryptoplasma of lizards and some Anaplasma-like bacteria of wild mice cluster into a monophyletic genus, divergent from all other genera of the family Anaplasmataceae. Candidatus Allocryptoplasma appears as a sister genus of Anaplasma and, with the genera Ehrlichia and Neoehrlichia, they form a monophyletic subgroup of Anaplasmataceae associated with tick-borne diseases. The detection of genetically distinct Ca. Allocryptoplasma in ticks of significant medical or veterinary interest supports the hypothesis that it is an emergent genus of tick-borne pathogens of general concern.