cassava

Two viruses, Indian cassava mosaic virus (ICMV) and the Sri Lankan cassava mosaic virus (SLCMV) are known to be associated with cassava mosaic disease in India. Using a simple PCR-based method, we devised a way to screen leaf samples of cassava showing mosaic symptoms for the presence of ICMV and SLCMV and to assess their variability (Patil et al., 2005). We subsequently showed that cloned SLCMV DNA could infect cassava (Dutt et al., 2005) and found recombination events in these viruses from various locations in southern India (Rothenstein et al., 2006). We published a comprehensive review on defective viral species and their importance (Patil and Dasgupta, 2006) and the importance of defective viruses on the symptom modulation (Patil et al., 2007). We showed that cloned SLCMV DNA could infect Arabidopsis thaliana (Mittal et al., 2008) and the importance of PCR-RFLP in studying the variability (Borah and Dasgupta 2012a). Using a sequence non-specific amplification method, we have shown the presence of micro-variability in field isolates of SLCMV (Kushawaha et al., 2018). We have standardized an inoculation process for SLCMV based on biolistics and worked out the phylogenetic relationship of the Indian isolates with each other and other related viruses (Kushawaha et al., 2015). We have shown the importance of amino acid residues of the coat protein of SLCMV in symptom development (Kelkar et al., 2016). Begomoviruses are an important group of viruses for tropical and sub-tropical parts of the world. We have published a review on begomoviral research accomplishments in India (Borah and Dasgupta, 2012b) and published a review on begomoviral infectivity (Kushawaha and Dasgupta, 2018).