Detection of DNA of Plant Pathogenic Mycoplasmalike Organisms by a Polymerase Chain Reaction that Amplifies a Sequence of the 16S rRNA Gene

A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method has been developed with a 558-bp fragment of the 16S rRNA gene as template DNA and two oligonucleotide primers from conserved regions of this gene. The suitability of the system has been tested with 17 isolates of mycoplasmalike organisms (MLOs) maintained in periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus) and with nine MLO samples from field-grown woody plants. With DNA preparations enriched in MLO DNA, an amplification product was obtained after 24 cycles from all MLOs maintained in periwinkle. No amplified DNA was detected under these conditions in the samples from healthy plants (...)