Rapid diagnosis of apple proliferation mycoplasma‐like organism using a polymerase chain reaction procedure

The rapid diagnosis of apple proliferation mycoplasma-like organism, using polymerase chain reaction amplification of part of the 16S rRNA gene is reported. Apple proliferation MLO can be detected in as little as 0.3 g of diseased tissue. Results compare favourably with those obtained by other PCR-based methods. Operational speed, sensitivity, specificity and ease of performance of the method, with particular reference to indexing purposes, are discussed.