AN UNCULTURED BACTERIUM ASSOCIATED WITH INFECTION IN MANDARIN (Citrus reticulata) IN PAKISTAN

This study was aimed to isolate and characterize the bacterium associated with citrus greening disease. As this disease cause losses in citrus industry of Pakistan. It was suspected that may be there are more than one bacterium involved in this disease development. This disease look like happens due to complex population of microorganism so the reason is still not identified. There is a need of extensive research on citrus greening to know the basic reason for this disease. Therefore an extensive survey of citrus orchards infected with citrus greening disease in Mian Chanu region of Punjab, Pakistan was conducted in August, 2015. Vein yellowing, blotchy mottle and vein thickening were recorded. . The PCR product of size 1500 bp was amplified with universal 16sRNA primers 27F/1492R and Nucleotide sequence was deposited in Gene Bank NCBI through accession number LT592134. BLAST and Phylogenetic analysis established their association with separate group. In our knowledge, this might be a new uncultured bacterium (1369 bp), associated with infection in citrus tree in Mian chanu, Pakistan.