Optimization of extraction procedure can improve phytoplasma diagnostics

Phytoplasma cause many important vector-borne and graft-transmissible plant diseases. They can affect different host plants. In this work we concentrated on the optimization of diagnostic procedures of pyhtoplasma on fruit trees. The extraction of DNA from the samples is necessary for the molecular analyses that follow. In our experiment we compared two extraction methods – CTAB and automatic extraction procedure on 61 different samples of fruit trees. After the analysis with real-time PCR we con-cluded that both extraction procedures give the same result, but the automated procedure is less time consuming and therefore has advantage over the CTAB method. Key words: automated DNA extraction, CTAB, fruit tree phytoplasma, PCR, real-time PCR