Morphological, anatomical and molecular investigation into witches' broom disease of mamejvo (Enicostemma axillare)

Mamejvo (Enicostemma axillare Raynal) is a perennial herb with diversified health benefits. It was found to be affected by a witches’ broom disease under the field conditions at Anand, Gujarat, India. Affected plants were 53.33% reduced in height due to shortened internodes, leading to typical witches’ broom symptoms. Flower size was reduced significantly in the affected plants compared with the healthy ones and their petal color gradually turned green (virescence). Affected plants produced 2.5 times more dry herbage than the normal plants but with less active ingredient (swertiamarin). Symptomatic plants died early while root suckers from such plants failed to establish after transplanting. DAPI stained transverse sections of affected shoot tips showed the presence of discrete greenish fluorescence in the phloem cells under UV light. Amplification of 1.2 kb phytoplasma specific rDNA fragment from diseased tissue confirmed the presence of the pathogen. Further characterization of the pathogen through virtual rDNA–RFLP pattern and rDNA sequence based phylogeny suggested that the pathogen, Enicostemma witches’ broom phytoplasma, belonged to 16SrII–C group of ‘Ca Phytoplasma aurantifolia’.