“ Candidatus Phytoplasma ”

Phy.to.plas'ma. Gr. masc. n. phytos a plant; Gr. neut. n. plasma something formed or molded, a form. Tenericutes / Mollicutes / Acholeplasmatales / incertae Sedis ‐ Family II / “Candidatus Phytoplasma” Phytoplasmas (Sears and Kirkpatrick, 1994) are wall‐less, nutritionally fastidious, phytopathogenic prokaryotes 0.2–0.8 µm in diameter that morphologically resemble members of the Mollicutes . Sequencing of nearly full‐length PCR‐amplified 16S rRNA genes (Gundersen et al., 1994; Namba et al., 1993; Seemüller et al., 1994), combined with earlier studies (Kuske and Kirkpatrick, 1992b; Lim and Sears, 1989), provided the first comprehensive phylogeny of the organisms and showed that they constitute a unique, monophyletic clade within the Mollicutes . These organisms are most closely related to members of the genus Acholeplasma within the Anaeroplasma clade as defined by Weisburg et al. (1989). Sustained culture in cell‐free media has not yet been demonstrated for any phytoplasma. Their genome sizes have been estimated to range from 530 to 1350 kb, and the G+C content of phytoplasma DNA is about 23–30 mol%. The presence of a characteristic oligonucleotide sequence in the 16S rRNA gene, CAA GAY BAT KAT GTK TAG CYG GDC T, and standard codon usage indicate that phytoplasmas represent a distinct taxon for which the name “ Candidatus Phytoplasma” has been adopted by specialists in the molecular biology and pathogenicity of these and similar phytopathogenic organisms (IRPCM Phytoplasma/Spiroplasma Working Team – Phytoplasma Taxonomy Group, 2004). At present, the designation “ Candidatus ” must still be used for new types.