Viral Diseases of Banana and Their Management

Abstract

Banana (Musa spp.) is one of the most important staple food crops which provide nutrition and income for the millions of farmers worldwide, especially in tropical regions. Asia being the major continent for banana production contributes more than half of the world banana production (101.9 million tonnes). Banana is vegetatively propagated using suckers or through tissue culture plants which grow, mature and fruit without seasonality throughout the year. Viral diseases are considered a major concern for banana production because of their effects on yield and quality as well as limitations to germplasm multiplication and the international germplasm exchange. There are many (about 20) different viruses reported to infect banana worldwide. However, the economically most important viruses are: Banana bunchy top virus (BBTV), Banana streak viruses (BSV), Banana bract mosaic virus (BBrMV) and Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV). Among these, BBTV and BSV are major threats for banana production. Of the two, BSV exist as episomal and endogenous forms and more widely spread worldwide than BBTV, though later is so far most economically damaging virus contributing to a yield reduction of up to 100 %. Due to lack of durable virus resistance in the Musa spp., measures such as phytosanitation, use of virus free planting material, strict regulation on movement of infected planting materials are effective means to control viral diseases in banana. Studies of several decades on the biology, epidemiology, survival, spread, sequence integration into the host genome of banana viruses and their integrated management strategies are summarized in this review.