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A method for generating virus-free cassava plants to combat viral disease epidemics in Africa

A method for generating virus-free cassava plants to combat viral disease epidemics in Africa

Maruthi, M.N. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8060-866X, Whitfield, E. Charles, Otti, Gerald, Tumwegamire, Silver, Kanju, Edward, Legg, James P., Mkamilo, Geoffrey, Kawuki, Robert, Benesi, Ibrahim, Zacarias, Anabela, Munga, Therezia, Mwatuni, Francis and Mbugua, Edward (2018) A method for generating virus-free cassava plants to combat viral disease epidemics in Africa. Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology. ISSN 0885-5765 (Print), 1096-1178 (Online) (doi:10.1016/j.pmpp.2018.09.002)

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Abstract

Here, we report a method to clean cassava plants from viral infections that cause cassava mosaic and brown streak diseases in Africa. Infected plants of resistant or tolerant varieties from Malawi, Mozambique, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda were cleaned in the UK using a combination of tissue culture, chemotherapy and thermotherapy. In the first cycle of our virus-indexing procedure, we successfully cleaned 27 of the 31 varieties (87%), and after an additional three cleaning cycles, all plants were virus-free. Virus-free tissue-cultured plants were shipped back to Africa for distribution to farmers. This first cross-boundary effort provides important lessons for mitigating the two-major cassava viral diseases.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY/4.0/).
Uncontrolled Keywords: Manihot esculenta Cassava brown streak disease Cassava mosaic disease Virus indexing Virus diagnosis
Subjects: S Agriculture > S Agriculture (General)
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group: Faculty of Engineering & Science
Faculty of Engineering & Science > Natural Resources Institute
Faculty of Engineering & Science > Natural Resources Institute > Agriculture, Health & Environment Department
Faculty of Engineering & Science > Natural Resources Institute > Plant Health Research Group
Last Modified: 22 Sep 2023 08:14
URI: http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/22371

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