Duduk B., J.B. Tian, N. Contaldo, X.P. Fan, S. Paltrinieri, Q.F. Chen, Q.F. Zhao, A. Bertaccini. 2010. Occurrence of phytoplasmas related to Stolbur and to ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma japonicum’ in woody host plants in China. Journal of Phytopathology 158(2):100-104.

During a survey in a limited area of the Shanxi province in China, phytoplasma symptoms were observed on woody plants such as Chinese scholar tree, apple, grapevine and apricot. The polymerase chain reaction/ restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR/ RFLP) analyses on the phytoplasma 16S ribosomal gene confirmed that symptomatic samples from all these species were infected by phytoplasmas. The molecular characterization of the pathogen, performed also with sequencing of polymerase chain reaction amplified 16S rDNA, showed that the phytoplasmas detected in all plant species tested are closely related with stolbur, but two samples from a Chinese scholar tree were infected with phytoplasmas related to Candidatus Phytoplasma japonicum. The presence of RFLP polymorphism was found in the 16S rDNA amplicons with three of the six enzymes employed in the majority of phytoplasma strains studied.