RESEARCH ON THE VECTOR OF ‘CANDIDATUS PHYTOPLASMA PRUNORUM’ IN APRICOT TREES IN SOUTHERN ITALY

A research of vector(s) of the phytoplasmas responsible for apricot chlorotic leaf roll disease was carried out in a field plot where European Stone Fruit Yellows Phytoplasma (ESFYP), now named ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma prunorum’ (‘Ca. P. prunorum’), had heavily infected an apricot collection in 1993. The plants were uprooted in May 1994 and, in 1997, the field was planted again with apricot trees.
This report was elaborated with the data collected from February 2003 through July 2007. The only insect species found was Empoasca decedens Paoli with 5,085 insects collected.
These insects were tested by direct and nested PCR to verify the presence of the phytoplasma.
Individuals of E. decedens, present in the field each month in each year, resulted to be hosts of ‘Ca. P. prunorum’ in ten months out of twelve, but not of every year.
The absence of phytoplasma in the two plants infected by ‘Ca. P. prunorum’ with E. decendens, four years after the acquisition of the pathogen, was also recorded.

XIV International Symposium on Apricot Breeding and Culture

M. Pastore, M. del Vaglio, F. Gervasi , M. Petriccione, S. Paltrinieri , A. Bertaccini

Empoasca decedens Paoli, European Stone Fruit Yellows Phytoplasma (ESFYP), insect-plant-pathogen interaction

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2010.862.83