Banana streak virus from India and its detection by polymerase chain reaction

Banana streak virus (BSV) is an important pathogen of bananas and plantains (Musa spp.). The authors cloned and sequenced part of the genomes of two isolates of BSV from Kerala, BSV-K1 and BSV-K3. Both the clones contained a sequence covering a part of open reading frame III. The multiple sequence alignment of amino acids showed that both the isolates had a very high degree of identity with each other and clustered with Nigerian isolates of BSV (BSV-Onne) but not with Australian isolate of BSV (BSV-Mys). The relationship of these two isolates with other badnaviruses and Rice tungro bacilliform virus was also analysed. BSV was detected by PCR amplification in samples, which were symptomatic but negative in electron microscopy.