Banana bunchy top virus in sub-Saharan Africa: Investigations on virus distribution and diversity

Kumar, P. Lava; Hanna, Rachid; Alabi, Olufemi J.; Soko, M. M.; Oben, T.T.; Vangu, G.H.P.; Naidu, Rayapati A.

doi:10.1016/j.virusres.2011.04.021

Cited by 99 publications

(111 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Spread by aphids and via infected planting material, the disease is aggressively moving through Africa, recently destroying the smallholder-based Cavendish industry in Malawi and becoming established in Nigerian plantains [24][25][26]. Importantly, the disease can be controlled, but cannot be eradicated in well organised commercial settings through the use of virus-free planting material and the regular plantation inspection and eradication of infected plants.…”

Section: The Challenges and Opportunities For Future Genetic Improvementmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Modifying Bananas: From Transgenics to Organics?

et al. 2017

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Bananas are one of the top ten world food crops. Unlike most other major food crops, bananas are difficult to genetically improve. The challenge is that nearly all banana cultivars and landraces are triploids, with high levels of male and female infertility. There are a number of international conventional breeding programs and many of these are developing new cultivars. However, it is virtually impossible to backcross bananas, thus excluding the possibility of introgressing new traits into a current cultivar. The alternative strategy is to "modify" the cultivar itself. We have been developing the capacity to modify Cavendish bananas and other cultivars for both disease resistance and enhanced fruit quality. Initially, we were using transgenes; genes that were derived from species outside of the Musa or banana genus. However, we have recently incorporated two banana genes (cisgenes) into Cavendish; one to enhance the level of pro-vitamin A and the other to increase the resistance to Panama disease. Modified Cavendish with these cisgenes have been employed in a field trial. Almost certainly, the next advance will be to edit the Cavendish genome, to generate the desired traits. As these banana cultivars are essentially sterile, transgene flow and the outcrossing of modified genes into wild Musa species. are highly unlikely and virtually impossible in other triploid cultivars. Therefore, genetic changes in bananas may be compatible with organic farming.

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Section: The Challenges and Opportunities For Future Genetic Improvementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many of these lines have been progressed through to a field trial recently planted in Malawi. The RNAi constructs specifically target the South Pacific strain of BBTV, which is the only strain reported from Africa [26].…”

Section: The Progress With Genetically Modified Bananasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modifying Bananas: From Transgenics to Organics?

et al. 2017

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“…This crop is ranked the first in terms of contribution to the total annual agricultural production in Burundi and Rwanda while it is the second after cassava in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) (FAOSTAT, 2009). The perennial nature of banana, compared with other staples, allows households to access food all-year round, providing significant amounts of micronutrients (Kumar et al, 2011). Among banana cultivars grown in Africa, plantain types (AAB genome) are mainly found in the humid lowlands of West and Central Africa, while the highland cooking and beer banana (AAA-EA) which contribute to approximately 30% of world banana production are common in the Eastern African highlands (Tenkouano et al, 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…BBTD was first reported from the Fiji Islands in 1889, but its causal agent was only identified 100 years later in 1990s (Magee, 1927;Wardlaw, 1961;Kumar et al, 2011), and was given the name, banana bunchy top virus (BBTV) (Karan et al, 1994). Currently, BBTV has spread to 33 countries worldwide (excluding the Americas) including 13 African countries (IITA, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the plant, replication of these circulative viruses is frequently restricted to the phloem providing a route for uptake and inoculation of viruses between plants via stylet-feeding aphids (Hogenhout et al, 2008). The virus is also transmitted over long distances through the movement of BBTVinfected planting materials (Kumar and Hanna, 2008;Vishnoi et al, 2009;Kumar et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Towards understanding the diversity of banana bunchy top virus in the Great Lakes region of Africa

Niyongere¹,

Lepoint²,

Losenge³

et al. 2015

Afr. J. Agric. Res.

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The genetic variability of banana bunchy top virus (BBTV) isolates from the Great Lakes region of Africa (GLRA) spanning Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda was assessed to better understand BBTV diversity and its epidemiology for improved disease management. DNA-R and DNA-S fragments of the virus genome were amplified and sequenced in this study. These two BBTV fragments were previously used to classify isolates into the South Pacific and the Asian groups. Phylogenetic analyses based on nucleotide sequences involving GLRA isolates and those obtained from the GenBank database were carried out. Sequence similarity for both DNA-R and DNA-S fragments ranged between 99.1 to 100.0% among the GLRA isolates, 96.2 to 100.0% and 89.7 to 94.3% between the GLRA isolates and those previously clustering in the South Pacific and the Asian groups, respectively. These results showed that GLRA isolates belong to the South Pacific group and are phylogenetically close to the reference Indian isolate. The similar banana cultivars and BBTV isolates across the GLRA implied that the disease may have mainly spread through exchange of planting material (suckers) between farmers. Thus, farmers' awareness and quarantine measures should be implemented to reduce BBTV spread in the GLRA.

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