Nwezeobi, Joachim ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7541-9186, Onyegbule, Onyeyirichi, Nkere, Chukwuemeka ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1212-0785, Onyeka, Joseph, van Brunschot, Sharon ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9634-9463, Seal, Susan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3952-1562 and Colvin, John (2020) Cassava whitefly species in eastern Nigeria and the threat of vector-borne pandemics from East and Central Africa. PLoS ONE, 15 (5):e0232616. ISSN 1932-6203 (Online) (doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0232616)

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Abstract

Bemisia tabaci (sensu latu) is a group of >40 highly cryptic whitefly species that are of global agricultural importance, both as crop pests and plant-virus vectors. Two devastating cassava diseases in East and Central Africa are spread by abundant populations of one of these species termed Sub-Saharan Africa 1 (SSA1). There is a substantive risk that these whitefly-borne pandemics will continue to spread westwards and disrupt cassava production for millions of smallholder farmers in West Africa. We report here, therefore, the first comprehensive survey of cassava B. tabaci in eastern Nigeria, a West African region likely to be the first affected by the arrival of these whitefly-borne pandemics. We found one haplotype comprising 32 individuals with 100% identical mtCO1 sequence to the East African SSA1 populations (previously termed SSA1-SG1) and 19 mtCO1 haplotypes of Sub-Saharan Africa 3 (SSA3), the latter being the most prevalent and widely distributed B. tabaci species in eastern Nigeria. A more divergent SSA1 mtCO1 sequence (previously termed SSA1-SG5) was also identified in the region, as were mtCO1 sequences identifying the presence of the MED ASL B. tabaci species and Bemisia afer. Although B. tabaci SSA1 was found in eastern Nigeria, they were not present in the high abundances associated with the cassava mosaic (CMD) and cassava brown streak disease (CBSD) pandemics of East and Central Africa. Also, no severe CMD or any CBSD symptoms were found in the region.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2020 Nwezeobi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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
Last Modified:	10 May 2020 22:21
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/28154

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