Sandalwood spike illness (SSD) has virtually worn out the sandalwood inhabitants from the forests of southern India, discovered a latest examine carried out by scientists from the National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS). The examine additionally revealed that SSD is spreading by way of seeds and subsequently posing a risk to the industrial distribution of sandalwood seedlings.

The examine was printed on October 12 within the worldwide analysis journal ‘Biology’ by Amit Yadav and his group at NCCS in collaboration with R Sundarraj, Institute of Wood Science and Technology (IWST), Bengaluru.

Yadav mentioned that the over 200 seeds from SSD-affected bushes and over 500 seedlings generated utilizing commercially bought seeds had been screened for the presence of SSD phytoplasma to grasp the vertical transmission in an insect-free atmosphere. The SSD is brought on by phytoplasmas, a pathogenic micro organism transmitted by leafhoppers and planthoppers.

“These seedlings are primarily raised by the seeds obtained from the sandalwood trees growing in the Marayoor Sandalwood Reserve (MSR) situated in the southern Kerala. The MSR is known for hosting a large population of sandalwood trees free from SSD infestation compared to other sandalwood growing areas; therefore, it is trusted in the seed market. This study was initiated after finding the phytoplasma-positive seedlings raised using seeds from MSR, collected randomly from the commercial nurseries, and reports of the unknown reason for their mortality,” mentioned Yadav.

“The real-time nested PCR-based screening revealed an alarming rate of 38.66% and 23.23% phytoplasma positivity in one-month and four-month-old seedlings, respectively. Usually, embryos, which give rise to seedlings, are considered sterile. These results were further validated by visualizing the phytoplasma cells in sandalwood tissues using scanning electron microscopy,” he added.

He added that the presence of phytoplasmas within the seeds and seedlings is a priority for the industrial distribution of sandalwood seedlings.

“This also poses a fear of spreading the disease to newer areas where efforts to reestablish the healthy sandalwood population are underway. These findings strongly recommend the accreditation of commercial production of sandalwood seedlings and paradigm shifts in policies handling sandalwood seedlings for commercial or government plantations. Additionally, a new assay developed in this study proved valuable for the rapid screening of phytoplasma in many plant samples at a time to detect phytoplasmas,” he mentioned

He added that it was seen that the SSD additionally infects different crops like Ziziphus and sugarcane , which can stand as reservoirs to the pathogen.

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As per the examine

– 20% lower in sandalwood manufacturing in India since 1995

-27,930 kg of sandalwood oil was exported in 1997–98, which was decreased to 10 kg in 2015-16

-The decline in pure inhabitants pushed sandalwood into the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) ‘red list’ of threatened species in 1998 and listed as ‘vulnerable (vu)’ in 2019.