New Microbe Responsible for Unusual Disease in Sesame Fields Identified as Causative Agent

KOLKATA, 12 MARCH, 2024 (Alayaran.com) - A team of researchers at the Bose Institute has discovered a new microbe suspected to be causing a bizarre disease in sesame fields in Midnapore district of West Bengal. The disease, characterized by sesame plants reverting to their vegetative state after attaining the flowering and fruiting stage, poses significant concerns for farmers.

According to Prof. Gaurab Gangopadhyay, lead researcher on this project, an investigation in 2023 revealed Candidatus Phytoplasma as a molecular marker-assisted breeding team's previous discovery of improved sesame varieties was crucial in this detection process. Prof Gangopadhyay and his team worked for fourteen years to develop several oil seed crop hybrids.

The newly discovered microbe belonging to the cell wall lacking Mollicutes bacteria, was identified from the gut of infected 'leafhoppers and plant-hoppers,' an infection vector capable of infecting commercially valuable crops such as grapevine, maize etc. The transmission primarily takes place through phloem feeding insects which, unfortunately often plague sesame crop.

This new pathogen has been proven to thrive in rich nutritional phloem cell tissue, creating significant damage by disrupting interconnected metabolic pathways and rendering symptoms including leafy disfigurement & vivessence of floral parts leading plants into revertion in vegetative mode.