Multilocus Sequence Analysis Reveals Three Distinct Populations of " Phytoplasma palmicola" with a Specific Geographical Distribution on the African Continent.

To sustain epidemiological studies on coconut lethal yellowing disease (CLYD), a devastating disease in Africa caused by a phytoplasma, we developed a multilocus sequence typing (MLST) scheme for " Phytoplasma palmicola" based on eight housekeeping genes. At the continental level, eight different sequence types were identified among 132 " Phytoplasma palmicola"-infected coconuts collected in Ghana, Nigeria, and Mozambique, where CLYD epidemics are still very active. " Phytoplasma palmicola" appeared to be a bacterium that is subject to strong bottlenecks, reducing the fixation of positively selected beneficial mutations into the bacterial population.