Phytoplasmas as causal agents of celosia disease in Israel

Recently, yellows diseases have become more common in Israel, and phytoplas mas have been detected in some of these diseased crops. Commercial fields o f two celosia species (Celosia plumosa L. and C. cristata L,) also have exh ibited yellows symptoms and total crop failure. Typical mycoplasma-like bod ies were observed in infected but not in healthy plants, The same plants we re analyzed for the presence of phytoplasma by polymerase chain reaction (P CR), using the universal oligonucleotide pair r16SF2/r16SR2, followed by ne sted PCR using group-specific primers. Restriction analyses performed with these products indicated that two different types of phytoplasmas are infec ting celosia, PCR-RFLP analysis of one type revealed a restriction pattern typical of aster yellows. Similar analysis of the second type indicated pos sible relatedness, though not identity, to the pattern of phytoplasmas of t he Western-X group. This is, to our knowledge, the first report of phytopla sma infection in celosia.