Cassava is a major factor in food security across sub-Saharan Africa. However, the crop is susceptible to losses due to biotic stresses, in particular to viruses of the genus Begomovirus (family Geminiviridae) that cause cassava mosaic disease (CMD). During the 1990s, an epidemic of CMD severely hindered cassava production across eastern and central Africa. A significant influence on the appear...

Maize streak virus (MSV) contributes significantly to the problem of extremely low African maize yields. Whilst a diverse range of MSV and MSV-like viruses are endemic in sub-Saharan Africa and neighbouring islands, only a single group of maize-adapted variants - MSV subtypes A(1)-A(6) - causes severe enough disease in maize to influence yields substantially. In order to assist in designing eff...

Genomes of two isolates of tomato leaf curl geminivirus from India (ToLCV-India) have been sequenced. ToLCV-India contains A and B components, both of which are required for systemic movement and symptom development. The two isolates have 94% sequence identify but one isolate gave mild symptoms in Nicotiana benthamiana and tomato. The genome organization of ToLCV-India is similar to other white...

ABSTRACT: Plant viruses have a wide range of weed/wild hosts, which can act as virus reservoirs. Centosema brasilianum is wild leguminous species frequently found in association with cultivated fields the Northeast region country. In March 2017, plant C. was showing symptoms mosaic and leaf rolling, municipality Maceio, state Alagoas. this context, present study aimed to detect molecular charac...

Plant defense traits such as trichomes along with biocontrol agents may provide alternatives to insecticide use in tomatoes, Solanum lycopersicum L. (Solanaceae). However, plant-herbivore-natural enemy interactions are not always complementary. In a series of greenhouse and field experiments, we explored whether augmented (i.e., production acylsugars) tomato plants could reduce sweet potato whi...

Abstract As highly pervasive parasites that sometimes cause disease, viruses are likely major components of all natural ecosystems. An important step towards both understanding the precise ecological roles and determining how communities viral species assembled evolve, is obtaining full descriptions diversity distributions at ecosystem scales. Here we focused on such “community-scale” data for ...

Bemisia tabaci is a key pest of vegetables and other crops worldwide, but it is a particularly serious problem in the tropics, due to its ability to transmit several types of viruses, especially begomoviruses (Geminiviridae). Therefore, a preventive approach to deal with viral epidemics may be the deployment of repellents or phagodeterrents at earlier stages of plant development (critical perio...

The ongoing global spread of Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV; Genus Begomovirus, Family Geminiviridae) represents a serious looming threat to tomato production in all temperate parts of the world. Whereas determining where and when TYLCV movements have occurred could help curtail its spread and prevent future movements of related viruses, determining the consequences of past TYLCV movement...