HEMALATHA TM

Completed B.Sc in Agriculture, M.Sc (Agiculture) and Ph.D (Plant Pathology) at Acharya N.G.Ranga Agricultural University, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India

EDUCATION

Ph.D in Plant Pathology

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Fungal pathology, Biological control, Host Resistance

FUTURE PROJECTS

Scopus Publications

First Report of ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma aurantifolia’ Related Strain (16SrII-D) Associated with Stunting, Little Leaf, and Phyllody Disease of Pearl Millet from South India
T. M. Hemalatha, M. Shantipriya, D. Vijay Kumar Naik, B. V. Bhaskara Reddy, M. Gurivi Reddy, L. Madhaviltha, M. Hemanth Kumar, B. Vajantha, N. V. Sarala, and K. R. Tagore
Scientific Societies
Pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L).R.Br.] also known as bajra, is one of the oldest millets and is cultivated in dry regions of arid and semi-arid tropics where no other cereal can be successfully grown. Pearl millet cultivation in India accounts for about two-thirds of millet production and is the fourth most cultivated food crop after rice, wheat and maize in India (Reddy et al. 2021a). In February 2021, the typical symptoms of stunting, phyllody and little leaf were observed after 25-30 days after sowing pearl millet seeds at Agricultural Research Station in Perumallapalle, Tirupati, India (Fig.1 A-C). The disease incidence was recorded up to 20% in the sampling regions. Total DNA was extracted from two symptomatic and two asymptomatic plant samples using CTAB DNA extraction method (Murray and Thompson, 1980). The extracted DNA was amplified in direct PCR and nested PCR assay using phytoplasma 16S rRNA universal primer pairs P1/P7 and R16F2n/R16R2 (Gundersen and Lee.1996) and secA gene with secAfor1/SecArev3 and SecAfor2/SecArev3 primer pairs (Hodgetts et al. 2008). 16SrRNA (1.25 kb) and secA (600 bp) gene amplicons were obtained from two symptomatic samples by nested PCR. No amplicons were produced with DNA from healthy leaf samples. Nested PCR amplified products (1.25 kb and 600 bp) from the symptomatic samples corresponding to the F2nR2 region of 16S rRNA and secA were directly sequenced at automated DNA sequencing facility (Eurofin Genomics India Pvt., Ltd Bangalore) and sequence data was deposited to NCBI GenBank with accession number ON005559 and ON067810. BLAST analysis revealed that pearl millet phytoplasma strain shared 100% sequence identity in 16Sr RNA and secA genes to 'Canditatus Phytoplasma aurantifolia' related strains (Acc. Nos. OM616883 and MT952965) from India. The subgroup was identified as 16SrII-D using the iPhyClassifier based on the virtual RFLP pattern derived from the query 16S rDNA F2nR2 fragment (Zhao et al. 2009). The virtual RFLP pattern is similar to the reference pattern of 16SrII-D (Y10096) with similarity coefficient 1.00. Phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA and secA gene sequences using MEGA version 7.0 revealed that the pearl millet phytoplasma strain clustered with 'Ca. P. aurantifolia' isolates of 16SrII-D subgroup. (Fig.1D-E) Earlier, one of 16SrI-B-phytoplasma strain (HM 134245) associated with green ear disease of pearl millet was reported in North India (Kumar et al. 2010). In this study, we reported the association of 16SrII-D subgroup phytoplasma with little leaves and witches'-broom disease of pearl millet in South India. Phytoplasmas belonging to the 16SrII-D subgroup have a wide range of hosts, including the agricultural and horticultural crops (Reddy et al., 2021b). Hence, this is the first report of 'Ca. P aurantifolia' infection in bajra in South India. The increase in the spread of 16SrII-D sub group phytoplasma diseases and the expansion of the host range strongly suggest further studies on the epidemiology of the dynamic dissemination of this disease in India.


First report of ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma australasia’ related strain associated with little leaf and witches’ broom disease of Hibiscus sabdariffa in India
D. Vijay Kumar Naik, B. V. Bhaskara Reddy, L. Prasanthi, M. Guruvi Reddy, G. Sandhya, T. M. Hemalatha, and R. Sarada Jayalakshi Devi
Wiley



Genetic Variability Studies of Yellow Mosaic Virus Infecting Blackgram [Vigna mungo (L.) Hepper] fromAndhra Pradesh, India
D. Vijay Kumar Naik, B.V. Bhaskara Reddy, R. Sarada Jayalakshmi Devi, L. Prasanthi, R. Lakshminarayana Vemireddy, Akkari Srividhya, B.H. Chaithanya, T.M. Hemalatha, and K. Sailaja
Agricultural Research Communication Center
Background: The productivity of blackgram is affected by many biotic and abiotic stresses. Among the biotic stresses, yellow mosaic disease (YMD) cause severe yield loss and it is caused by four distinct viruses (belongs to genus begomovirus) collectively known as yellow mosaic virus (YMV). Hence there is need to characterize various YMV isolates associated with blackgram in Andhra Pradesh. Methods: YMV infected blackgram samples were collected from East Godavari, Kurnool and Prakasam districts of Andhra Pradesh. The Rolling Circle Amplification (RCA) based full length MYMIV DNA-A and MYMV DNA-B of three isolates were cloned and sequenced. Result: Nucleotide sequence of full length DNA-A of MYMIV-East Godavari isolate showed greater than 96% similarity at nucleotide and greater than 90% at amino acid level with other MYMIV isolates in NCBI database. The complete DNA-A nucleotide sequence of MYMIV-Kurnool and MYMIV-Prakasam isolates shared greater than 99% similarity at nucleotide and greater than 98% at amino acid level with other MYMIV isolates. The complete nucleotide sequence of MYMV DNA-B of three isolates (East Godavari, Kurnool and Prakasam) had greater than 97% homology with other MYMV DNA-B isolates from database. The predicted amino acid sequence of MYMV DNA-B of three isolates shared greater than 96% homology with other MYMV-B isolates. The common region (CR) sequence similarity between MYMIV-As and MYMV-Bs of East Godavari and Kurnool isolates was 76.4% and 78.3% with Prakasam isolate. The divergence between the MYMIV-A and MYMV-B of present three isolates (East Godavari, Kurnool and Prakasam) under study were ranged from 22.2 to 22.6%.


First report of a ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma asteris’ (16Sr I-B) associated with phyllody disease of Panicum sumatrense in India
T. M. Hemalatha, D. Vijay Kumar Naik, L. Madhavilatha, B. V. Bhaskara Reddy, M. Shanti Priya, M. Gurivi Reddy, M. Hemanth Kumar, N. V. Sarala, B. Vajantha, and K. R. Tagore
Wiley



GGE biplot analysis in finger millet [Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.] genotypes across agro-climatic zones of Andhra Pradesh
EJPB, ISPB, CPBG - Tamil Nadu Agricultural University



Regeneration and evaluation of somaclones of sugarcane variety Co86032 for yellow leaf disease resistance and yield traits
Praveen Kona, M Hemanth Kumar, K H P Reddy, T M Hemalatha, D M Reddy, N P Eswar Reddy, and P Latha
Springer Science and Business Media LLC



Inhibition of aspergillus flavus colonization and aflatoxin (AfB1) in peanut by methyleugenol

RESEARCH OUTPUTS (PATENTS, SOFTWARE, PUBLICATIONS, PRODUCTS)

-Developed protocol for serological detection of sugarcane yellow leaf virus in infected samples of sugarcane.
-Developed sugarcane somaclone (2016T7) resistant to sugarcane yellow leaf disease.
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