Phytoplasma diseases of stone fruit trees in Turkey and their containment

Although fruit tree phytoplasmas were studied since 1999 in Turkey, there have been very limited studies and records on stone fruit tree phytoplasmas. The main symptoms reported on apricot, plum, peach and almond were chlorosis between veins, off season flowering and fruiting as a result of early bud breaking, longitudinal leaf rolling and quick die-back. More than 500 cultivated and wild Prunus plants in or nearby germplasm nurseries and commercial orchards during 2002–2009 were tested by using universal primers P1/P7 and fU5/rU3 in direct and nested PCR assays, respectively. Amplification products were digested with RsaI and SspI restriction enzymes. The average incidence of ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma prunorum’ was detected as 10.19%. The most infected stone fruit species were apricot and plum, followed by almond and peach. No phytoplasma was found in cherries and wild Prunus species.