An isolate of ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma australiense’ group associated with Nivun Haamir dieback disease of papaya in Israel

., 1998). Field observationsof NHDB suggested an airborne pathogen, but electronmicroscope studies failed to associate it with a phytoplasma(Franck & Bar-Joseph, 1992). Recently, 15 papaya plantssuspected of having NHDB were tested for phytoplasmaby nested PCR using P1/P7 and R16F2n/R16R2 primers.Phytoplasma products were confirmed by direct sequenc-ing of the 16S/23S spacer region (SR), in which nine outof 15 samples with symptoms tested positive but all healthycontrols were negative. Grapevines (