| Collection and detection of candidate vectors of palm leaf dieback |
| Paper ID : 1168-3IICE (R1) |
| Authors: |
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Roya Arbab Tafti *1, Fariba Mozaffarian2, Maryam Ghayeb Zamharir3, Mohammad Reza Eslahi4 1Dept of Agril Entomology, IRIPP 2Dept of InsectTaxonomy, IRIPP 3Dept of PlantPathology, IRIPP 4Plant Protection Research Department, Khuzestan Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Center, , Ahvaz, Iran. |
| Abstract: |
| Date palm is the most important crop cultivated in Khuzestan province, south of Iran. Palm leaf dieback has been observed for the first time in Shadegan, Darkhovin and Karun on different cultivars such as Estameran, Berhi, etc in April 2014. In this study, due to isolate phytoplasma of infected samples from focal points, possible vectors were collected and identified in 2017 and 2018. Detection of vectors of dieback disease could be useful in managing of vectors and phytoplasma agents in infected date palm groves.Collecting insects were conducted by sweep net, shaking insects off plants, yellow sticky cards and water trap inside infected palm groves. Among the different methods of sampling, the most successful methods were shaking insects off plants and sweeping net. The collected insects, which comprised Heteroptera and Auchenorrhyncha, were sorted and identified. The identification of Heteroptera species were performed by Prof. Attilio Carapezza, University of Palermo in Italy. Kollar and Ahrens (1992) method were used for extraction of DNA from suspicious samples and detection of phytoplasma was done by direct nested-PCR method based on16S rRNA genes using the universal phytoplasma primer set P1/Tint, followed by the primer set R16F2n/R2 in the collected vectors from date palm groves. A total of 10 genera and 9 species of Hemiptera were identified (Auchenorrhyncha: 3 genera and 3 species; Heteroptera: 7 genera and 6 species). The following species were shown to be infected by phytoplasma: Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Delphacidae: Tropidocephala prasiana Melichar, 1902 Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Pentatomidae: Eysarcoris ventralis (Westwood, 1837) Lygaeidae: Nysius graminicola (Kolenati, 1845) Lygaeidae: Nysius sp. Coreidae: Omanocoris versicolor (Herrich-Schaeffer, 1841) The planthopper, Tropidocephala prasiana is known as an endemic species in Iran which feeds on herbaceous plants and probably Imperata cylindrica (cogon grass). The sequencing analysis showed the infection of specimens of this species to Candidatus phytoplasma trifolii. Therefore, it can be considered as a probable vector for palm leaf dieback disease. The sequence analysis of the other samples is in progress. |
| Keywords: |
| Bug, Date palm, Candidatus, Leafhopper |
| Status : Paper Accepted (Poster Presentation) |
