Pakistan
August 25, 2010

Cotton leaf curl disease (CLCuD) is a major disease of cotton in Pakistan and destroying 15-20% of the total crop. CLCuD is caused by begomo viruses in association with a disease-specific symptom determining satellite (Cotton leaf curl Multan betasaellite [CLCuMB]) and, in some cases, a non-essential alphasatellite.

The scientists of the National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (NIBGE) have colloned these components from six samples collected from Sindh and the full-length sequences analysis of six begomovirus clones showed that one to be an isolate of Cotton leaf curl Kokhran virus (CLCuKV), a virus previously shown to be associated with CLCuD in the Punjab, whereas the other five clones showed less than 90% nucleotide sequence identity to several known begomoviruses associated with CLCuD.

They indicate that these viruses are the isolates of a newly identified begomovirus, for which scientist propose the name Cotton leaf curl Shahdadpur virus (CLCuShV).

Further identification indicated that this is actually a recombinant origin and the virus complex causing CLCuD in Sindh is distinct from that in the adjacent Punjab province.

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Published: September 3, 2010