Phytoplasma-Induced Biochemical and Genetic Variations in Crassula argentea

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Ornamental and Floriculture Department, Horticulture Research Institute, Antoniades, Alexandria 21599, Egypt

Abstract

Phytoplasma is a plant pathogenic bacteria that causes several morphological abnormalities.This study reports on biochemical and genetic variability between the phytoplasma infected (PI) and symptomless Crassula argentea plants using RAPD markers. Chemical composition of normal plants was higher of all elements. However, change in ferrous (Fe) content was not significant between normal and abnormal plants. Infected plants had potassium content higher than normal plant. Also, chlorophyll contents were decreased by phytoplasma infection. Water content was higher in infected plant than normal plant The electrophoresis revealed a high level of polymorphism among the studied plants. A total number of 67 amplified bands were generated across the PI and symptomless plants with polymorphism percentage of 32.8. The primers OPC10, OPK05 and OPU05 yielded different polymorphic banding patterns that were unique to each primer and distinguishable over the PI and symptomless plants. RAPD molecular marker analysis revealed epigenetic variations between normal and phytoplsma infected plants, and itcould be utilized for the identification of Crassula genotypes.

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