An Exploratory Statistical Analysis of Phytoplasma Protein Sequence Associated with Coconut (Cocos nucifera) Root Disease Isolated from Malabar Coastal Region of India

Abstract

Phytoplasma, the causal agent of coconut root disease (CRD) has been considered as a serious threat to coconut production in the Malabar coastal region of India. The disease is non lethal, but causes a considerable economic loss in India every year. It has already been reported that species of the phytoplasma belonging to ribosomal group 16SrXI, are primarily associated this disease.  In present study, our objective is to explore more information that is already hidden within this phytoplasma protein sequence, using important statistical techniques. Therefore, we explored all important statistics with regard to the CRD phytoplasma protein sequence and further, predicted its secondary structure using Chou-Fasman algorithm. We obtained the value 8.3 of iso-electronic point of this protein, and also found that its predicted secondary structure consists of 5 helical regions, 6 beta sheet regions and 2 beta turn regions. A comparative analysis of the sequence with the sequences of phytoplasma related to other economically important crops revealed that there was no evidence of significant difference within the secondary structures of the selected sequences at 5% level of significance.