Detection of 'Candidatus Phytoplasma luffae' in Sponge Gourd, Bitter Gourd, and Bamboo from Laguna in Luzon, Philippines

In the Philippines, phytoplasma disease symptoms of little leaf and witches' broom have been observed in sponge gourd (Luffa sp.), bitter gourd (Momordica charantia) and bamboo (Bambusa vulgaris). However, the cause of the disease remained unidentified. Molecular analysis was conducted to detect the presence and identify the phytoplasma associated with the diseased plants. Nested PCR has detected the presence of phytoplasmas in sponge gourd, bitter gourd and bamboo showing symptoms of little leaf and witches' broom. Nucleotide BLAST and phylogenetic analyses of the 16S rRNA gene have identified 'Candidatus Phytoplasma luffae' belonging to group 16SrVIII in all three crops with highest similarity (98.04%, 99.51%, and 99.25%) to the loofah phytoplasma reference strain from Taiwan. This is the first report of detecting the same species of 'Ca. Phytoplasma' in three different genera of plants from Laguna located in Luzon island, the Philippines.