Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Pathogen Interactions
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1467331

Alternative hosts of banana bunchy top virus (BBTV) in the Philippines and the first evidence of seed transmission of BBTV

Provisionally accepted
Nicole Angelee Mercado Perez Nicole Angelee Mercado Perez 1,2*Jay-Vee Sityar Mendoza Jay-Vee Sityar Mendoza 3John E. Thomas John E. Thomas 4,5Fe Mangaban Dela Cueva Fe Mangaban Dela Cueva 3
  • 1 University of the Philippines Los Baños, Los Baños, Philippines
  • 2 National Crop Protection Center, College of Agriculture and Food Science, University of the Philippines Los Baños, Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines
  • 3 Institute of Plant Breeding, College of Agriculture and Food Science, University of the Philippines Los Banos, Los Banos, Laguna, Philippines
  • 4 The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
  • 5 Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    BBTV is transmitted locally by aphids (Pentalonia spp.), but the long-distance spread is through the movement of infected planting materials. This study investigated potential alternative hosts of BBTV in ornamental Musa and related species in the Zingiberales in the Philippines. The potential for seed transmission of BBTV through Canna indica seeds was also investigated. Typical symptoms of BBTV in bananas, including dark green streak on the midrib and petiole and rosetting were observed on inoculated Musa coccinea (banana blossom), M. velutina (velutina), M laterita. (bronze banana) and Canna indica (Bandera Espanola). PCR assays confirmed BBTV infection in these symptomatic test plants, as well as in Curcuma longa (turmeric) which exhibited large chlorotic blotches on the leaf. BBTV was detected from both seeds and germinated seedlings of artificially inoculated and field-collected C. indica samples. This study identified M. laterita as a new host of BBTV. The susceptibility to BBTV of M. coccinea, M. velutina, C. indica, and C. longa was also confirmed. The study also provided the first evidence of seed transmission of BBTV. C indica is an ornamental plant popularly used for landscaping in the Philippines and seeds were shown to be an efficient mode of transmission of the virus with rates up to 34%. The discovery of natural infection in ornamental plants and seeds poses a risk to the banana industry and responsible propagation and appropriate quarantine protocols must be implemented.

    Keywords: alternative host, Banana bunchy top virus, ornamentals, Pentalonia, Seed transmission

    Received: 19 Jul 2024; Accepted: 15 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Perez, Mendoza, Thomas and Dela Cueva. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Nicole Angelee Mercado Perez, University of the Philippines Los Baños, Los Baños, Philippines

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.