First Report of East African Cassava Mosaic Virus-Uganda Infecting the Nile Tulip Tree in Western Kenya

Abstract

Whitefly-transmitted cassava mosaic begomoviruses (CMBs; family Geminiviridae; genus Begomovirus) are viruses with bipartite genomes (components referred to as DNA-A and DNA-B) containing a conserved (between the two components) non-coding sequence known as the common region (CR) required for DNA replication and transcription (Fondong,2013). CMBs cause cassava mosaic disease (CMD), a major limitation to cassava production in sub-Saharan Africa. In Kenya, CMD is associated with the begomovirus species East African cassava mosaic virus (EACMV), African cassava mosaic virus (ACMV), East African cassava mosaic Kenya virus, and East African cassava mosaic Zanzibar virus as well as several recombinant viruses, such as the virulent EACMV-Uganda (EACMV-UG) that so far occurs only in western Kenya (Nyongesa et al., 2016). Within the CMB-cassava pathosystem, various non-cassava plant species may play an epidemiological role as virus reservoirs for the whitefly vector Bemisia tabaci (Alabi et al., 2008).