+44 330 818 7254Md. Nazrul Islam, Afsar Raza Naqvi, Arif Tasleem Jan and Qazi Mohd. Rizwanul Haq
Banana bunchy top virus (BBTV) is the causal agent affecting banana production worldwide. Sequence analysis of replicase genes of BBTV isolates revealed that two Indian isolates under study, from Bhagalpur (Bihar), have one amino acid change (Alanine to Serine) at position number 95. The Stem Loop Common Region (CR-SL) was found to be highly conserved among BBTV isolates while CR-M exhibit greater homology with members of South Pacific group. Interestingly, DNA 2 CR-M of Bihar isolate (FJ605508) showed sequence homology with DNA 6 CR-M sequence indicating possible recombination between these two components. Such recombination event might occur in other genomic loci and could contribute towards viral evolution. Based on the phylogenetic studies (sequence alignment and phylogenetic tree) using all six DNA (DNA 1-6) including replicase and coat protein genes and CR-M region clearly indicates that our BBTV isolates belong to South Pacific group and are very close to Fiji and Myanmar isolates. On the basis of mix Phylogram of DNA components 1- 6, we can assume that BBTV genome originated from a single component and during the course of evolution portion of DNA 3 and DNA 4 remained conserved.
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