Abstract
Banana (Musa sp.) is a popular and important crop among many communities in East Africa. Banana production is however threatened by the wide-spread banana streak disease (BSD), caused by Banana streak virus (BSV). The success of BSV management is inherently coupled to the availability of a sensitive indexing method. In this study, the sensitivity of three BSV detection techniques: rolling circle amplification (RCA), immunocapture PCR (with degenerate and Gold finger primers) and standard PCR was compared. A set of 32 BSD-asymptomatic samples were used to compare the techniques. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) for comparison of the four techniques showed that there were significant differences (P Musa tissues for BSV. This study unveils a more reliable BSV detection method, a need that has remained unaddressed for a long while.
Highlights
Banana streak disease, caused by Banana streak badnavirus, accounts for up to 90% yield losses in banana [1]
An evaluation of two degenerate primer pairs to be used for IC-Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and direct PCR showed that the badna primers were better
Results of the thirty two asymptomatic samples indexed for Banana streak virus (BSV) using immuno-capture polymerase chain reaction (IC-PCR), direct PCR and TempliPhi (RCA) are shown in Figures 3(a)-(c) and Table 2
Summary
Banana streak disease, caused by Banana streak badnavirus, accounts for up to 90% yield losses in banana [1]. It reduces plant growth and vigor, bunch weight and yield [2]. A high degree of genomic and serological heterogenity between BSV isolates poses a challenge to reliable indexing of the virus. The success of banana streak disease control is almost entirely dependent on the availability of accurate, sensitive, low cost and simple diagnostic techniques, which enable early detection of virus infections in plant materials [6]. Direct PCR is limited by the integration of viral sequences in the host genome which causes the technique to give false positives in BSV detection. The above enumerated challenges necessitate the search and development of a sensitive tool for BSV diagnostics
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