Phytoplasma infections in Korea have been increasingly reported across various woody plants, including fruit trees, forest trees, urban forests, and ornamental trees. However, molecular information based on secA and rp operon sequences remains limited...
Phytoplasma infections in Korea have been increasingly reported across various woody plants, including fruit trees, forest trees, urban forests, and ornamental trees. However, molecular information based on secA and rp operon sequences remains limited for many hosts, restricting comparative analyses of host associated genetic diversity.
Diagnosis is further complicated by extremely low pathogen titers, uneven distribution within plant tissues, and the frequent absence of clear symptoms during early infection stages. Conventional PCR based methods require time consuming procedures and pose a high risk of cross contamination, limiting their applicability for rapid field diagnostics.
Loop-mediated isothermal amplification(LAMP) has emerged as a practical alternative, allowing nucleic acid amplification at 60-65 ℃ using a thermostable polymerase and a set of multiple primers, and enabling rapid detection through simple visual inspection or fluorescence based readout without electrophoresis.
To improve phytoplasma diagnostics and genetic characterization, phytoplasmas infecting woody hosts in Korea were analyzed using secA and rp operon sequences to determine their phylogenetic relationships across 16Sr groups and subgroups. Based on these molecular data, a tuf gene based LAMP diagnostic assay was developed to simultaneously detect three 16Sr groups occurring in Korean woody plants, providing a rapid, accurate, and field applicable tool for phytoplasma identification.