Distribution and molecular characterization of apple proliferation phytoplasma in Turkey

During summer and autumn in the years 2005 and 2006, extensive surveys were carried out in important pome fruit production provinces Isparta, Yalova and Ankara in order to determine presence and diffusion of ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma mali ’ in Turkey. 201 symptomatic and nonsymptomatic samples were taken from apple orchards and analyzed by double antibody sandwich en-zyme linked immunosorbent assay (DAS-ELISA), 4’-6’-diamino-2-phenyleindole (DAPI) staining, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) followed by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). Universal and AP group specific primers were used in PCR. RFLP analysis was performed with RsaI and SspI enzymes on the positive PCR products. According to the results, 8 apple trees were found ‘Ca. P. mali ’ infected and RFLP results show that there were no differences between the isolates. Best of our knowledge, this is the fist report of ‘Ca. P. mali ’ in Turkey