National Research Centre for Banana, Trichy-620102, India.
Abstracts of the papers presented at the International Conference of Indian Virological Society on “Emerging and Re-emerging viral Diseases of the Tropics and Subtropics” at Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India, December 11–14, 2007.
Banana Bunchy Top Disease (BBTD) is one of the most devastating diseases of banana which has been a serious threat for cultivars like Virupakshi (Hill Banana) in India. Banana Bunchy Top Virus has multi-component genome consisting of at least six ssDNA, and isometric virions belong to the genus Babuvirus and family Nanoviridae. In this study, we report the cloning, sequencing and analysis of all six DNA component of BBTV infecting hill banana isolate. The primers were designed based on the published sequences for the amplification all the six full length BBTV DNA components. The amplicons of six BBTV DNA components were cloned in pGEM-T easy vector and sequenced. The sequences have been deposited in genbank. Comparison of sequences of individual components has been made with the published sequences available in NCBI genbank. When compared the nucleotide sequences of BBTV-DNA1 with other isolates, 99, 97 and 93% homology was observed with south pacific group, Asian and African group respectively. BBTV-DNA 3 component had 96–97% homologies with south pacific and African group, where as BBTV-DNA 2 had 92–94% homologies with south pacific and Asian group. BBTV DNA 4 had 94–96% and BBTV DNA 5 had 94–99% homologies with Africa and South pacific group isolates. BBTV DNA-6 had 97% homology with South Pacific group. Cluster analysis has also been done for the deduced amino acid sequences of hill banana isolate with other isolates. This is the first report that all the six components of BBTV from an Indian isolate has been sequenced.
